THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


A,  BACHELOR  MAID 


'IT  NEEDED   ONLY  THIS!'  SHE   CRIED."     (SEE   PAGE    118.) 


A   BACHELOR.  MAID 


BY   MRS.  BURTON   HARRISON 

AUTHOR'OF  "CROW'S  NEST  AND  BELHAVEN  TALES,"  "SWEET  BELLS 
OUT  OF  TUNE,"  ETC. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  BY 
IRVING   R.    WILES 


NEW  YORK:  THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1894 


Copyright,  1894,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co, 


THE  OdVIHNc  PR 


Ps 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1702018 


r.u;i; 


;<IT  NEEDED  ONLY  THIS!'   SHE  CRIED"         Frontispiece 
MR.  JUSTICE  IRVING 

GORDON  '  .0 

MARION 

61 

'•THEY  WERE  A  PLEASING  CONTRAST"  59 

"PERHAPS  WE  OUGHT  NOT  TO  DISTURB  You"  151 

"MARION  CAME  AT  ONCE"  183 


A  BACHELOR  MAID 


31 R.  JUSTICE  IRVING  was  in  the 

act  of  putting  on  his  overcoat  to 
leave  the  Antediluvian  Club.  He 
was  feeling  reasonably  cheerful,  for 
he  had  beaten  his  favorite  adver 
sary,  Bob  Crouch,  at  billiards;  so 
cheerful,-  indeed,  that  he  made  a  mental  note  of  a 
fleeting  resolve  to  give  Crouch,  to  console  him,  the 
next  appointment  he  should  have  of  a  commissioner 
in  lunacy. 

It  was,  therefore,  a  smiling  countenance  his  honor 
turned  upon  a  young  man  already  equipped  for  the 
street,  who  came  to  offer  him  a  hand  with  his  coat. 

"  Ha,  Gordon  !  That  you  ?  Have  n't  seen  you  be 
fore  this  evening." 

"  No ;  I  have  just  come  in,  hoping  to  catch  you  — 
and  to  walk  home  with  you,  if  I  may." 

"  Glad  of  your  company,  my  dear  boy,"  the  judge 
said,  as  they  emerged  under  the  sparkling  heaven  of 
a  mild  winter's  night  in  New  York.  ''Wanted  to 
speak  to  you  about  the  sale  of  Romaine's  books. 
What  the  deuce  he  means  by  selling  them,  I  can't  make 
out.  Twenty  good  years  of  a  man's  life  put  into  a 
collection  that  can't  be  beat  for  choiceness,  and  here 
i 


2  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

they  are  to  be  scattered  for  a  freak.  You  must  man 
age  to  be  there,  my  dear  lad ;  there  are  one  or  two 
tidbits  my  mouth  has  been  watering  for  this  age. 
You  must  appear  for  me,  as  usual,  and  mind  you  se 
cure  them,  if  I  am  to  die  in  peace.  And  I  've  got  a 
copy  of  the  new  Prayer-Book,  edition  de  luxe,  to  show 
you,  with  a  story  attached  to  it  as  good,  almost,  as 
my  luck  in  getting  it  half  price.  Did  n't  see  you  at 
the  Grolier  last  night,  by  the  way.  Were  you  and 
Marion  quarreling,  as  usual,  at  our  house?  Can't 
think  where  that  daughter  of  mine  gets  her  way  of 
flying  off  the  handle  about  little  things  not  quite  to 
her  taste." 

"  She  has  flown  off  the  handle  for  good  and  all,  so 
far  as  I  am  concerned,"  said  the  young  lawyer.  "  She 
has  broken  our  engagement." 

"Broken — your  —  oh  —  good  heaven,  Gordon,  you 
are  thirty  years  old  —  you  are  not  taken  in  by  stuff 
like  that  ?  Broken  —  the  girl 's  mad  ;  I  always  said 
so ;  that  woman's  college  I  was  fool  enough  to  send 
her  to  —  to  '  finish  her  education,'  forsooth !  —  has  put 
more  silly  rot  into  her  head  than  it  ever  did  ideas. 
Ever  since  she  quitted  it,  four  years  ago,  she  has  gone 
on  following  one  fad  after  the  other,  till  I  'm  thank 
ful  she  has  n't  brought  me  to  be  an  open  laughing 
stock  before  the  town.  And  what  this  means,  I  don't 
believe  anybody  knows.  She  took  you  of  her  own 
free  will;  you've  been  engaged  a  year;  and  I  had 
every  hope  of  seeing  her  married,  and  settled,  and  out 
of  mischief,  in  the  spring  —  and  —  "here  his  honor 
emitted  a  naughty  word,  and  struck  his  stick  upon 
the  pavement  so  fiercely  that  a  policeman,  acciden- 


A  BACHELOE   MAID  3 

tally  in  his  place  upon  the  block,  looked  around  with 
languid  interest  to  see  what  was  "  up  " —  "  she  shall 
marry  you  in  the  spring,  or  I  '11  know  the  reason  why." 

"Marion  would  not  be  the  prize  I  have  thought 
her,"  said  the  young  man,  modestly,  "  if  she  could  be 
forced  into  marrying  against  her  will." 

"  What 's  her  will  ?  What  does  a  girl  know  about 
what  she  wants,  and  what  she  does  n't  want?"  pur 
sued  the  irate  father.  "If  there  's  anything  on  God's 
earth  troublesome  to  deal  with  at  the  breakfast-table, 
or  on  the  witness-stand,  it  's  a  woman.  Trouble 
some?  Exasperating?  J)e rilix/t !  If  ever  I  lost  my 
temper,  it  would  be  with  the  whimwhams  miscalled 
woman's  ideas.  This  age  is  going  to  pot  with  'em. 
The  creatures  write  (and,  what 's  worse,  print !),  and 
howl  and  shriek  on  platforms,  and  struggle  for  equal 
ity  with  us  in  a  perfectly  disgusting  way.  It 's  some 
one  of  that  gang  that 's  got  hold  of  Marion,  you  may 
depend;  that  's  persuaded  her  she  has  a  mission 
above  matrimony.  If  that  were  the  case,  and  I  had 
my  way,  I  'd  like  to  sentence  the  offender  to  be  ducked 
as  a  common  scold." 

Gordon  had  foreseen  the  effect  of  his  communica 
tion.  He  waited  quietly,  adjusting  his  long  strides 
to  the  somewhat  shorter  and  heavier  ones  of  his  se 
nior,  until  the  first  access  of  anger  had  talked  itself 
out,  and  then  took  up  the  tale  in  the  same  even,  self- 
controlled  voice  in  which  he  had  begun  it. 

"  I  don't  suppose  it 's  worth  while  for  me  to  tell 
you  how  long  I  've  wanted  Marion.  She  is  five-and- 
twenty  now;  I  took  my  love  for  her  into  the  law- 
school  with  me,  and  have  never  wavered  in  it  since. 


I  did  not  ask  her  till  a  year  ago,  because  I  had  n't 
enough  to  offer  her  till  then." 

"  Egad,  man,  you  've  made  a  hit  at  our  bar  second 
to  none  of  your  contemporaries ;  and  I  'm  blessed  if  I 
know  one  of  them  that 's  got  an  eye  and  a  flair  like 
yours  for  a  good  book.  You  are  the  only  man  alive 
I  'd  wish  to  have  come  in  for  my  library  when  I  'm 
gone.  I  have  left  it  to  you  in  my  will,  as  you  know, 
with  the  stipulation  it 's  to  be  kept  together." 

"That  can  now  no  longer  be  my  duty,  sir,"  an 
swered  Gordon. 

"  Alec,  what  are  you  thinking  of  I  Why,  if  twenty 
Marions  threw  you  overboard,  you  'd  still  have  the 
books  !  "  exclaimed  his  honor,  with  heartfelt  emphasis. 
"  But,  come,  tell  me  about  this  business  quietly ;  don't 
excite  yourself.  In  such  matters  nothing  is  gained 
by  losing  our  grip  on  our  tempers.  When  did  she 
give  you  this  precious  piece  of  information  ?  Broken 
her  engagement,  eh?  I  '11  be  hanged  if  I  '11  put  up 
with  such  scurvy  treatment  of  her  father's  wishes. 
Am  I  nobody  in  my  own  house,  I  'd  like  to  know  ? 
Am  I  a  cipher,  a  petticoat-ridden  judge,  at  the  mercy 
of  a  spoiled  girl  infected  with  all  the  worst  notions 
about  woman's  independence  in  our  day  —  a  —  ?" 

"  I  received,  yesterday,  a  note  from  her,"  Gordon 
said,  taking  advantage  of  a  pause  during  which  the 
judge  was  fortunately  obliged  to  blow  his  nose,  "  tell 
ing  me  that  she  was  thoroughly  unhappy  in  the  exist 
ing  relations  —  which,  indeed,  I  had  perceived.  She 
asked  me  to  go  to  her  last  evening,  and  I  went.  We 
talked  over  the  subject  in  every  aspect  possible.  I 
said  everything  a  man  in  my  circumstances  could 


MR.    JUSTICE    IRVING. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  7 

say.  She  looked  more  beautiful  than  I  have  ever 
seen  her,  and  she  was  neither  over-excited,  nor  exag 
gerated  in  her  speech  —  " 

"  Marion  is  like  me,  they  tell  me,"  interpolated  the 
father,  grimly  smiling  in  the  dark. 

"But  there  was  no  deceiving  myself.  Marion's 
ideas  have  undergone  a  change.  She  has  come  to 
this  conclusion  deliberately.  She  did  not  need  to  re 
mind  me  that  she,  unlike  most  girls,  had  begun  her 
life  in  society  without  holding  marriage  as  its  chief 
goal  —  " 

"  Stuff  and  nonsense  !  If  you  can  find  anything  in 
the  world  as  dismal  and  depressing  as  a  woman,  out 
side  of  a  sisterhood,  who  devotes  herself,  through 
conviction,  to  a  single  life — they  're  bad  enough, 
and  vexatious  enough,  married ;  but  as  old  maids  — 
and  if  I  've  got  to  pass  the  remainder  of  my  days  in 
the  cage  with  one  of  them  !  I  won't  do  it,  Gordon  ; 
I  won't  do  it!  I  '11  box  up  the  books,  send  them 
to  a  safety  deposit  company,  let  my  house,  take 
rooms  near  the  club,  and  allow  Miss  Irving  to  en 
joy  her  single  blessedness  where  she  will." 

"  Don't  decide  now,  sir,"  said  Gordon,  who,  not  in 
the  least  surprised  at  the  father's  attitude,  pursued 
the  even  tenor  of  his  way.  "What  I  want  to  ask 
you  —  as  a  favor  to  me,  if  you  consider  that  I  am  at 
all  injured  or  aggrieved  by  the  turn  affairs  have  taken 
—  is  to  say  nothing  to  Marion.  I  told  her  that  I 
would  tell  you  of  her  dismissal  of  me." 

"  It 's  the  first  time  I  ever  knew  her  to  be  a  coward  !  " 

"She  is  no  coward;  and  you  do  not  think  so," 
Gordon  said,  a  little  rise  in  his  temperature  making 


8  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

itself  manifest  in  his  voice.  "  She  is  as  brave  a  girl 
as  ever  drew  breath,  and  as  true.  I  asked  her  leave 
to  tell  you  —  I  want  you  to  prove  your  friendship  for 
me,  sir  —  thlit  I  Ve  never  had  cause  to  doubt  —  that 
is  my  honor  and  my  pride  — " 

<rYou  'd  have  been  the  son  I  'd  have  chosen,  Alec, 
to  make  up  for  the  boy  I  lost,"  said  the  older  man, 
and  the  two  gripped  hands  on  it. 

"  You  won't  scold  her  —  you  won't  visit  it  on  her 
in  any  way?  You  will  accept  it,  as  I  do,  as  final? 
You  will  gratify  any  wish  of  hers  to  shape  her  life 
according  to  the  ambition  she  now  has  ?  " 

"  You  ask  a  good  lot  of  me,  Alec.  I  did  not  see  her 
this  morning.  Come  to  think  of  it,  they  said  she  had 
a  headache,  and  Marion  never  has  headaches ;  and  I 
dined  at  the  club  with  Crouch  and  a  couple  of  Western 
lawyers  he  has  on  hand.  Crouch  plays  a  pretty  good 
game  at  billiards,  Alec,  eh  ?  Not  many  men  in  the 
Antediluvian  who  can  lay  him  out.  Well,  I  beat  him 
three  times  running  to-night.  Poor  return  for  his 
capital  dinner,  eh?  By  George,  that  chef  can  cook 
ducks!  Outside,  a  beautiful,  even  brown,  and  the 
blood  following  the  knife  —  cooked  to  a  charm.  And 
with  them  we  had  a  glass  of  Chainbertin  just  the 
right  temperature.  Say  what  you  will,  those  things 
tell.  Give  me  rather  a  chop  and  a  bottle  of  beer  if  I 
can't  get  ducks  roasted  right,  which  you  never  can  in 
your  own  house,  I  Ve  found.  I  'm  the  easiest  fellow 
to  please  in  all  the  world,  but  when  that  woman  of 
Marion's  sends  up  wild  ducks  overdone !  You  were 
saying  you  want  me  not  to  haul  Marion  over  the 
coals.  Why,  Alec,  you  know  if  there  's  anything  I 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  9 

don't  do,  it  is  to  let  myself  loose  when  anything 
vexes  me." 

"  I  know,"  ventured  Gordon,  soothingly.  "  But  as 
this  is  rather  more  vexing  than  usual,  I  want  to  be 
sure  Marion  does  not  suffer  because  I  have  been  tell 
ing  tales  on  her.  Let  her  speak  to  you  first,  if  speak 
of  it  you  must  between  you.  Allow  everything  to  go 
on  as  before.  If  you  could  think  of  some  one  to  in 
vite  to  make  her  a  visit  at  this  time,  it  would  take  her 
out  of  herself,  and  break  up  her  solitude,  which  can't 
be  good  for  her  just  now." 

"  Solitude?  What  does  she  expect!  She  's  mis 
tress  of  a  good  house,  with  plenty  of  servants,  leave 
to  go  and  come,  a  carriage  and  a  maid  to  take  her 
into  society.  She  has  more  invitations  than  she  cares 
to  accept.  I  can't  fill  up  the  house  with  chattering 
women,  to  please  her.  Good  Lord !  They  'd  be 
turning  over  my  neckties,  and  even  handling  the 
books,  before  you  'd  know  it !  But  I  '11  agree  to  say 
nothing.  That  I  can  do.  It 's  no  sacrifice  to  me  not 
to  speak  my  mind  out." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Gordon,  briefly.  They  were  now 
stopping  in  front  of  the  judge's  house,  a  broad,  com 
fortable  mansion  of  red  brick  a  few  doors  from  Fifth 
Avenue,  in  an  old-fashioned,  pleasant  quarter  not  far 
from  the  Marble  Arch.  While  the  judge  was  feeling 
for  his  latch-key,  Gordon  managed  to  look  up  un 
observed  at  the  windows  of  the  third  story  above 
him.  From  the  angle  made  by  the  curtains  in  one  of 
these  upon  a  shade  illuminated  from  within,  he  saw  a 
shadow  withdraw.  He  knew  this  room  to  be  the 
special  belonging  of  his  lately  affianced  wife,  and  he 


10  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

recognized  the  stately  outline  of  her  figure.  She, 
then,  had  been  waiting  and  watching  for  her  father, 
when  all  the  rest  of  the  quiet  house  was  in  darkness. 
Gordon  remembered,  with  a  pang  of  sympathy  for 
her,  that  in  all  the  world  outside  that  sleeping  house 
she  had  no  friend  but  himself  who  knew  her  as  she 
was,  who  was  familiar  with  the  daily  trials  of  her  lot, 
who  could  stand  between  her  and  them.  And  now 
she  had  voluntarily  put  him  from  her,  to  live  alone 
and  to  fight  her  own  battles  with  what  he  believed 
to  be  a  world  of  shadows  summoned  by  her  over- 
vivid  imagination  to  people  the  loneliness  of  her 
life. 

Not  anger,  but  a  vast  pity  for  Marion,  took  fresh 
possession  of  him. 

"  Good  night,  then,  Alec,  if  you  won't  come  in  and 
look  at  that  catalogue  of  Romaine's  books,"  said  the 
judge  in  his  loud,  clear,  self-satisfied  voice. 

"Not  to-night.  I  think  if  you  or  Marion  could 
think  of  any  place  where  she  might  like  to  go  for  a 
little  change  —  any  one  going  abroad  whom  she 
might  join  —  " 

"Go  abroad!  Not  by  a  jugful,"  said  his  honor, 
vexed  into  a  slang  phrase.  "  I  Ve  no  patience  with 
these  female  vagrants  who  leave  the  houses  provided 
for  them,  and  the  duties  of  their  proper  sphere,  to  go 
wandering  around  in  foreign  parts  amusing  them 
selves  like  tramps.  Marion  knows  that,  when  I  am 
able  to  get  off,  she  goes  with  me  under  my  charge,  to 
do  the  things  I  think  best  for  her ;  and  with  that  she 
has  got  to  be  content.  Oh,  these  women,  Alec  — 
these  women  nowadays !  They  never  are  content ; 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  11 

they  are  as  mischievous  an  element  in  our  society  as 
anarchists.  Look  at  my  mother  —  wife  of  a  country 
parson,  brought  up  six  sons  in  a  Massachusetts  vil 
lage,  toiled  and  struggled  for  them,  never  thought  of 
herself,  I  believe,  till  she  lay  down  to  rest  in  the  old 
graveyard.  Look  at  Marion's  mother  —  ill  health 
from  the  time  Marion  was  born,  and  she  never  let  me 
know  it,  except  in  a  general  way,  until  she  died. 
Those  were  women ;  Marion  's  degenerate  — " 

"  I  won't  keep  you  in  the  ^draft  of  the  open  door," 
Gordon  went  on,  with  the  quiet  persistence  that  was 
a  part  of  him.  "  But  I  hope,  if  Marion  has  any  friend 
she  desires  to  visit  her,  you  will  think  well  of  provid 
ing  her  with  a  companion.  Just  now  she  needs  dis 
traction  -for  her  thoughts.  She  will  be  safer  with 
some  outlet." 

"  Well,  well,  I  '11  think  of  it.  Good  night.  Come 
over  on  Sunday  afternoon  as  usual,  and  stop  to  din 
ner,  and  we  '11  go  over  Romaine's  catalogue  carefully. 
You  are  not  going  to  let  this  girl's  folly  rob  me  of 
you,  my  boy?w 

"Good  night,  sir,"  the  young  man  said.  He  had 
grown  into  the  habit  of  thus  addressing  him  as  a 
father. 

Again  they  shook  hands,  the  front  door  closed,  and 
Gordon  ran  down  the  steps  to  the  sidewalk.  Instead 
of  going  home,  however,  he  crossed  the  street,  walk 
ing  up  and  down,  and  looking  from  time  to  time  over 
at  the  window  of  Marion's  sitting-room.  "When  the 
lights  there  were  extinguished,  he  turned  into  the 
Avenue,  and  made  his  way  to  his  quarters  in  Wash 
ington  Square. 


12  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

In  the  corridor  leading  to  his  rooms  he  met  a  man 
of  his  acquaintance,  likewise  on  his  way  into  retreat. 

"Hullo,  Gordon!  Saw  you  leaving  the  Antedilu 
vian  a  while  ago  arm-in-arm  with  your  father-in-law 
elect.  I  stopped  behind  to  enter  my  third  remon 
strance  on  one  subject  in  the  complaint-book.  There 's 
a  plot  among  the  club-servants  to  smile  whenever  I 
make  observations  about  the  ventilation  of  the  rooms; 
and,  by  George,  if  the  governors  don't  take  some  no 
tice  of  it,  I  '11  resign  out  of  the  club.  Been  seeing  his 
honor  home,  eh?  Soft  thing  you  have  there,  old  fel 
low;  not  to  speak  of  the  references  that  drop  into 
your  path  like  'the  gentle  dew  from  heaven.'  When 
are  you  going  to  hang  up  your  hat  for  good  upon 
Irving  J.'s  hat-rack?" 

"Miss  Irving's  engagement  to  me  is  at  an  end, 
Clarkson,"  said  Gordon,  pausing  at  his  own  door,  and 
speaking  deliberately,  while  holding  his  handsome 
head  erect,  and  looking  his  interlocutor  full  in  the 
face. 

"  What  f  "  said  Clarkson,  genuinely  surprised. 

"  Yes,"  answered  Gordon. 

"Is  there  —  if  any  one  asks  me  the  reason,  what 
would  you  like  me  to  say,  old  man?" 

"  Say  that  it  has  been  dissolved  by  mutual  consent. 
Good  night  to  you."  And,  opening  his  door,  Gordon 
disappeared  abruptly  from  the  view  of  his  acquain 
tance,  who  was  left  upon  the  mat,  whistling  softly. 

"  FATHER,  I  have  been  sitting  up  for  you,"  Marion 
had  said,  following  the  judge  into  his  library,  whither 
he  went  directly  upon  entering  his  home. 


GORDON. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  15 

This  room,  containing  the  apple  of  Judge  Irving's 
eye,  was  at  the  back  of  the  house,  in  an  extension 
built  to  receive  it  over  the  dining-room.  Upon  its 
walls,  everywhere  —  save  for  the  projecting  jamb  of 
a  great  chimneypiece  of  carved  oak,  and  a  bay-win 
dow,  the  upper  half  of  thin  glass  veined  with  delicate 
traceries  of  lead,  the  lower  curtained  with  amber  silk, 
making  sunshine  in  the  gloom  —  were  seen  the  mel 
low  bin-dings  of  "  the  books."  The  books,  Marion's 
rivals,  were  best  loved,  as  she  knew,  for  their  outer 
integument,  for  their  rare  press- marks,  for  the  fact 
that  another  collector  had  failed  to  secure  them. 
Into  these  had  gone  a  liberal  part  of  the  income  in 
sured  to  Mr.  Irving  during  his  life  by  his  wife's  will, 
setting  aside  for  her  daughter,  after  she  should  have 
reached  the  age  of  twenty-five,  an  annual  allowance 
of  three  thousand  dollars. 

Marion,  having  just  passed  the  period  indicated, 
had  not  as  yet  touched  her  inheritance.  Her  father 
had  reluctantly  acceded  to  his  wife's  desire  so  to  dis 
pose  of  her  own  belongings.  Although  he  would 
have  furiously  repudiated  the  idea  of  having  influ 
enced  his  spouse  in  the  matter  of  a  will  so  largely  in 
his  favor,  poor  meek  Mrs.  Irving,  going  to  her  grave 
at  a  gallop,  took  care  to  obtain  from  her  husband  in 
formation  as  to  the  exact  age  at  which  he  was  willing 
their  daughter  should  begin  to  enjoy  an  indepen 
dence  of  the  purse ;  and,  somehow  or  other,  twenty- 
five  was  the  age  given  to  the  lawyer  who  drew  up 
the  document. 

"  I  am  glad  you  fixed  upon  five  and  twenty,  An 
gela,"  the  judge  had  said  approvingly,  after  the  poor 


16  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

lady's  last  will  and  testament  had  been  duly  signed 
and  witnessed.  "  It  is  an  evidence  of  your  excellent 
judgment,  my  dear.  You  know  very  well  that  no 
young  woman,  before  that  age,  should  be  regarded  as 
a  responsible  being,  or  have  tools  for  folly  or  mis 
chief-making  put  into  her  hands.  Yes;  I  am  glad 
you  thought  of  it  —  very  glad." 

Whereon  he  had  stooped  over  her  couch,  and 
kissed  her,  going  out  of  her  room  in  such  fullness  of 
vigor  and  manly  good-looks  that  she  felt,  in  the  heart 
already  gripped  by  death,  a  gentle  palpitation  of  her 
old  adoring  love  for  him.  A  little  later  she  went  to 
her  reward,  satisfied  that  she  had  done  her  best  by 
the  daughter  left  in  the  care  of  such  an  infallible 
being. 

These  things  had  passed  when  Marion  was  a  child 
of  twelve.  At  eighteen  she  had  been  a  woman,  ar 
dent,  thoughtful,  speculative,  but  ever  since  had  lived 
the  life  of  an  infant  in  leading-strings,  so  far  as  her 
father  was  concerned.  The  curriculum  he  had  al 
lowed  her  to  take  at  a  woman's  college  in  a  neighbor 
ing  State  had  been  her  one  opportunity  to  stand 
alone,  to  test  the  little  budding  wings  of  her  intellect, 
to  speak  upon  any  subject  of  the  outer  world  without 
the  certainty  that  she  would  be  crushed,  or  smiled 
down  upon,  according  to  his  mood. 

Thus  the  engagement  with  Alec  Gordon,  entered 
into  by  her  with  hesitation  in  response  to  his  fervent 
pleadings,  was  poisoned  at  its  source.  She  had 
learned  to  look  upon  man  as  an  oppressor  of  woman ; 
to  mistrust  him  as  morally  weak  whan  physically 
most  attractive ;  to  resent  the  domestic  law-giver ;  to 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  17 

dread  giving  up  liberty,  even  comparative,  for  the 
positive  slavery  of  marriage.  Her  father's  favorite 
saying,  in  response  to  any  remark  of  hers  he  found  it 
inconvenient  to  answer, — "  When  Gordon  gets  hold 
of  you,  he  will  take  all  that  nonsense  out  of  you,  my 
dear," — had  grown  to  be  the  nightmare  of  her  en 
gagement.  And  at  last,  little  by  little,  the  solitary 
self-tormenting  of  the  girl  had  worn  away  her  power 
to  discriminate  in  character.  She  could  see  in  her 
lover  only  her  father's  instrument.  In  her  despair, 
she  wrote  to  a  friend  who  had  been  a  professor  in  the 
college,  and  told  her  the  case  as  if  it  had  been  that 
of  some  one  else.  Of  the  answer  we  will  quote  this 
phrase : 

In  sum,  I  should  say  to  your  friend  that  if  her  God-sent  in 
tentions  were  followed  out  by  all  women  who  experience  them, 
we  should  be  moving  with  quick  strides  to  the  future  we  pray 
for,  when  man  through  woman  shall  be  made  to  know  himself. 

"  I  am  not  sure  I  know  what  she  advises,"  quoth 
poor  Marion,  who  had  been  reading  seven  pages  pre 
ceding  the  sentence  quoted.  "  But  she  feels  for  me. 
If  I  could  talk  with  her  in  person,  I  should  be  easier. 
Oh,  what  in  my  place  would  the  Higher  Woman  do?  " 

What  Marion  did  we  have  learned  from  Alec  Gor 
don's  lips.  It  now  remained  for  her  to  meet  the 
storm  of  her  father's  wrath.  She  came  into  the 
library,  swiftly,  tragically,  her  tall  form  carrying  the 
sweep  of  a  loose  white  robe  edged  with  brown  fur. 
A  band  of  the  same  fur,  clasping  her  throat,  repeated 
the  tint  of  her  massive  hair,  parted  in  an  exquisite 
clean  line,  and  twisted  in  a  coil  behind.  This,  as  did 


18  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

everything  about  the  physical  woman  of  Marion 
Irving,  illustrated  nature  unspoiled  by  convention 
ality.  Her  taper  waist,  her  small  bust,  her  grand 
arms,  her  free  movements,  were  the  delight  of  a 
sketch-class  of  girls  to  which  she  belonged.  When 
she  would  consent  to  sit  for  them,  there  was  a  general 
exclamation  —  a  long-drawn  "Oh!"  of  satisfaction, 
deep,  not  loud.  Once,  draped  in  cheese-cloth  dam 
pened  and  dried  into  the  beautiful  pliability  beloved 
by  an  artist,  she  had  posed  for  them  in  the  attitude 
of  the  "  Winged  Victory  of  Samothrace."  Her  superb 
appearance  on  the  platform  in  this  guise  was  followed 
by  an  enthusiastic  burst  of  applause  from  the  class 
that  covered  the  model  with  a  veil  of  blushes. 

Of  the  bewitchments  of  ordinary  feminine  beauty 
she  possessed  few.  She  had  no  coquetry,  no  desire  to 
test  her  power  on  men.  Her  father's  unfeigned  con 
tempt  of  all  varieties  of  female  supremacy  had  made 
her  mistrust  her  ability  either  to  charm  or  to  com 
mand.  She  was  singularly  simple,  direct,  outspoken, 
and  by  men  of  society,  so  called,  was  rather  eschewed 
than  otherwise. 

As  she  now  descended  upon  her  father,  she  found 
him  warming  himself,  with  his  back  to  a  cozy  little 
fire,  its  flame  many  times  repeated  in  a  setting  of  yel 
low  tiles.  On  the  table  beside  his  deep  arm-chair 
cushioned  with  old-blue  corduroy  (these  blues  and 
yellows  carefully  chosen  by  himself)  stood  a  reading- 
lamp,  and  a  tray  with  a  small  cut-glass  decanter  of 
spirits  and  a  plate  of  biscuits.  The  butler  had  seen, 
according  to  custom,  that  everything  was  in  place. 
The  judge  meant  to  sit  there  for  a  quiet  half -hour 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  19 

before  retiring,  to  enjoy  the  consciousness  of  good 
health,  good  looks,  good  digestion,  good  repute,  and 
a  good  balance  at  the  bank. 

Marion's  appearance  surprised  him  unpleasantly. 
A  domestic  whirlwind,  in  the  wee  sma'  hours,  when  a 
man  has  nowhere  to  flee  from  it,  is  indeed  a  fear 
some  sight.  Why  in  the  dickens,  he  asked  himself, 
could  not  the  girl  have  put  off  this  business  till  morn 
ing,  when  it  is  always  possible  to  cut  short  the  heat 
of  any  discussion  by  opening  the  front  door?  He 
frowned,  therefore.  His  eyes  surveyed  her  with  the 
cold  displeasure  she  so  easily  aroused.  He  was  the 
Mr.  Justice  Irving  Marion  knew  best,  not  the  clever, 
genial  Mr.  Justice  Irving  known  to  the  bar  and 
public. 

"You  know  I  cannot  endure  having  any  one  sit 
up  for  me.  You  have  repeatedly  heard  me  say  so  to 
the  butler  and  the  maids." 

"  I  know,  father,  I  know.  I  will  never  do  so  again. 
But  I  felt  I  could  not  go  to  sleep  another  night, 
not  having  told  you  that  I  have  broken  with  Alec 
Gordon." 

"You  may, spare  yourself  the  words,  and  me  the 
annoyance.  Gordon  walked  home  with  me  and  told 
me.  If  I  had  to  hear  it,  it  was  better  coming  from  a 
man  who  can  tell  a  straight  story  than  from  a  woman 
who  dresses  the  whole  thing  up  to  suit  herself — " 

"Stop!"  she  cried.  "Not  that!  In  all  my  life  I 
never  told  you  a  lie." 

"  There  you  go,  taking  offense  at  trifles,  as  usual. 
I  meant,  of  course,  that  you  would  naturally  want  to 
put  the  best  face  on  this  shameful  business." 


20  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  There  is  no  shame  in  refusing  to  marry  a  man  I 
am  afraid  I  may  grow  to  hate.  The  shame  would  be 
standing  at  the  altar  by  him,  and  swearing  false  oaths. 
I  want  to  put  no  face  on  it  except  the  true  one.  I 
have  searched  my  heart,  father,  for  the  love  a  wife 
ought  to  bear  her  husband,  if  married  life  is  to  be 
supportable  — " 

"  Come,  come  !  "  said  the  judge,  rather  scandalized. 

"  I  have  found  there  nothing  but  a  cold,  hard  crust 
of  indifference.  I  like  Alec  as  a  friend ;  I  tried  to 
love  him:  but  I  love  no  one.  Father — "  she  paused, 
a  mighty  swelling  of  the  heart  took  away  her  speech 
for  a  moment;  she  drew  near  and,  rare  act,  laid  her 
hand  upon  his  shoulder — "father,  you  do  understand 
me,  don't  you  ?  You  loved  once —  did  n't  you  ?  " 

The  judge,  uncertain  whether  to  be  angrier  than  he 
already  was,  or  to  treat  the  matter  as  a  very  insignifi 
cant  joke,  moved  away  from  her  hand. 

"I  —  why,  Marion,  I  am  astonished  at  you  —  I  — 
bless  my  soul,  what  won't  women  try  to  investigate 
in  these  days  —  I  believe  your  mother  had  no  cause 
of  complaint  against  me  as  a  husband.  But  then  she 
was  one  of  the  kind  who  take  things  as  they  find 
them,  who  don't  tear  the  passions  to  tatters,  and  go 
back  to  the  fundamental  basis  of  created  things  when 
a  hasty  word  is  spoken.  She  was  an  admirable 
woman,  and  her  loss  —  er  —  ah — "  here  the  judge, 
catching  sight  of  a  newly  arrived  express-parcel  upon 
the  table,  expanded  into  a  positive  smile  of  rapture. 
"  By  the  Great  Horn  Spoon  !  if  there 's  not  the  '  Gesta 
Romanorum'  from  that  Boston  sale !  " 

"May  I  finish,  father?"  said  Marion,  her  arms  fall- 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  21 

ing  dead,  as  her  father  seized,  gloatingly,  upon  his 
prize. 

"  If  it 's  quite  the  same  to  you,  my  dear  Marion, 
we  '11  remit  the  rest  until  breakfast-time  to-morrow. 
I  had  made  an  offer  for  this,  but  feared  Lewis,  who 
was  on  the  spot,  would  outbid  me.  Oh,  by  the  way, 
on  Saturday  I  shall  have  leisure  —  you  shall  have 
your  bank-book  and  check-book,  and  I  '11  explain  to 
you  how  to  use  them.  And,  Marion,"  he  added,  turn 
ing  over  affectionately  the  saffrou-hued  leaves  of  the 
little  volume,  "that  reminds  me,  if  you  would  like  to 
have  a  visit  from  any  friend  —  how  would  it  do  to 
invite  my  brother  Joe's  girls  over  from  Philadelphia 
for  a  week  ?  " 

"  They  have  gone  to  Montreal,  father,"  she  said  list 
lessly.  Even  the  threat  of  a  visit  from  her  Uncle 
Joe's  girls  —  pretty,  flippant  creatures,  forever  agog 
after  men  and  finery  —  could  not  shock  her  now. 

"Then  think  for  yourself  —  there  must  be  some 
body,"  he  suggested,  already  a  little  out  of  patience, 
and  longing  to  be  alone. 

"I  have  a  friend  —  a  widow;  she  was  for  a  time  a 
teacher  in  our  college,  and  left  it  to  be  married.  She 
is  now  in  Washington,  unoccupied  and  very  poor,  I 
believe." 

"And,  pray,  what  is  her  name  ?  "  he  said,  turning 
over  the  leaves  as  before. 

"  Stauff er  —  Madame  Stauff er,  they  call  her,  since 
her  husband  was  a  foreigner.  She  is  not  old,  and 
rather  nice-looking.  She  would  interest  me,  I  think." 

"  Then  for  Heaven's  sake  ask  her,  and  be  done 
with  it.  Only,  when  she  gets  here,  mind,  I  break- 

2* 


22  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

fast  alone,  and  dine  at  the  club  whenever  the  fancy 
takes  me." 

"I  understand." 

She  waited  a  minute,  but  he  did  not  again  notice 
her.  Marion  left  the  room,  in  spite  of  herself  a  trifle 
lighter  of  heart  than  when  she  came  into  it.  She  re 
membered  Sara  Stauffer's  gift  of  sympathy.  She 
was  at  last  to  have  some  one,  all  her  own,  unshared 
by  her  father,  uninfluenced  by  his  views  and  wishes. 

Before  going  to  bed,  she  glanced  again  at  the  letter 
received  from  Sara  a  few  days  before.  She  decided 
that  she  would  not  wait  to  write,  but  early  next 
morning  would  send  a  telegram  inviting  Madame 
Stauffer  to  be  her  guest. 

Marion,  warmed  with  new  hope,  was  still  thinking 
of  Sara  Stauffer  when,  by  extinguishing  the  gas,  she 
did  what,  unknown  to  her,  was  the  signal  for  Alec 
Gordon  to  turn  away  from  his  watchman's  beat  on 
the  pavement  over  the  way,  and  to  go  back  to  his 
quarters,  carrying  the  keenest  disappointment  of 
his  life. 


II 


FEW  days  after  the  permission 
given  to  his  daughter  in  the  first 
glow  of  satisfaction  at  acquiring  an 
almost  unique  copy  of  the  "  Gesta 
Romanorum,"  Judge  Irving,  coming 
home  to  dinner,  stumbled,  upon  his 
own  threshold,  over  an  expressman  carrying  in  a 
little  trunk. 

"  Here,  you !  There  's  some  mistake.  That  is  not 
for  this  number,"  he  called  out  to  the  man,  who  was 
blocking  the  way  ahead  of  him. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  interposed  the  footman, 
who  held  open  the  heavy  old  mahogany  door  with  its 
side-lights,  fan-light,  and  brass  knocker,  bespeaking 
the  antique  respectability  intrenched  behind  it.  "  It 's 
the  luggage  of  the  furren  lady  that  's  come  to  visit 
Miss  Irving.  Hurry  up,  my  man ! "  he  added  in  a 
lower  tone.  "Look  sharp  for  the  gas-fixture,  and 
carry  that  little  article  to  the  third-story  back. 
Maid  's  on  the  stairs  to  show  you." 

"Third-story  back?"  repeated  the  master  of  the 
house,  who  was  all  ears  for  everything  that  went  on 
inside  of  it.  "  That  is  Miss  Irving's  own  bedroom, 
Hilary." 

23 


24  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  Them  was  Miss  Irving's  orders,  sir.  Miss  Irving 
have  moved  into  the  small  room  for  the  present." 

"  Very  extraordinary,"  muttered  the  judge,  rather 
pleased  with  a  grievance  to  cover  the  extreme  an 
noyance  he  had  felt  at  sight  of  the  little  trunk. 

An  impertinent  little  trunk  —  small,  cramped-look 
ing,  not  by  any  means  of  the  appearance  to  justify 
its  ascent  of  Ms  front  stairs  —  the  kind  of  trunk  hab 
itually  delivered  after  nightfall  by  cheap  expressmen 
at  the  basement  door,  as  appertaining  to  one  of  the 
ladies  of  divers  nationalities  who  arrive  at  one's 
home,  and  remain  for  a  time,  "until  suited,"  with 
their  clothes  in  a  paper  parcel. 

Mr.  Justice  Irving,  whose  appearance  on  the  bench 
presented  a  majesty  felt  alike  by  lawyers,  clients,  and 
court-officers,  had  a  dim  idea  that  he  had  detected  on 
the  countenance  of  his  servant,  when  the  offending 
box  had  come  under  his  august  observation,  an  ex 
pression  of  pleased  appreciation. 

"So  Miss  Irving  has  changed  her  bedroom?  And 
this  lady — when  did  she  arrive?" 

"About  four-thirty,  sir.  Walked  over  from  the 
elevated,  sir,  I  understood.  I  took  tea  in,  almost  im 
mediately,  to  Miss  Irving's  sitting-room,  where  the 
ladies  has  been  talkin'  ever  since." 

"  I  remember,  now,"  said  his  master,  frowning  upon 
his  affability.  "  It  was  to-day  she  —  that  pers  —  the 
lady,  was  to  arrive.  Hilary,  I  shall  dine  at  the  club. 
You  can  mention  it  to  Miss  Irving,  just  before  dinner 
is  served,  so  that  she  may  not  wait  for  me." 

"Very  good,  sir,"  said  Hilary,  hanging  up  the 
judge's  coat  and  smiling  more  freely  as  the  broad 


A   BACHELOR   MAID  25 

back  of  his  master  ascended  the  stairs  to  his  dress 
ing-room. 

But,  'after  all,  what  was  there  to  smile  at  ?  Any 
man  in  Judge  Irving's  circumstances  would  have  had 
just  cause  for  a  desire  to  flee.  His  privacy  invaded, 
the  silence  of  his  home  broken,  by  a  little  Madame 
Nobody,  who  had  been  trumped  up  by  his  daughter 
when  in  one  of  her  hysterical  moods.  A  little  person 
—  that  she  was  little  he  decided  from  her  trunk  — 
who  would  require  civility,  before  whom  he  must 
needs  curb  his  tongue  into  the  platitudes  expected 
by  women  at  meal-times.  A  "  queer"  person,  he  was 
sure;  a  genius  of  the  provinces  ;  a  bore,  in  short  —  a 
fearful,  unmitigated  bore ! 

And  add  all  this  to  the  natural  unwillingness  of  the 
male  sovereign  to  face  in  his  domestic  kingdom  a 
stranger  who  would  expect  him  to  live  up  to  his  repu 
tation  for  dignity  and  agreeability.  He  thought, 
while  tying  his  white  cravat,  of  the  occasion  when 
Charlotte  Bronte  had  arrived  to  dine  with  Thackeray, 
and  that  great  man  was  discovered  by  his  daughters 
in  the  act  of  escaping  from  the  house  to  seek  the  se 
clusion  of  Ms  club.  No ;  this  was  really  too  much  for 
even  Marion's  selfishness  to  impose  on  him,  and  he 
should  take  care  not  to  delay  in  making  her  under 
stand  the  ordeal  was  not  to  last. 

MEANWHILE,  the  afternoon  that  Marion  felt  to  be 
an  epoch  in  her  existence  had  flown  by,  for  the  wo 
men,  on  happy  wings.  Sara,  arriving  by  some  mis 
chance  unexpectedly,  had  been  met,  greeted,  installed 
by  Marion  in  her  own  easiest  chair  in  her  own  sane- 


26  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

turn,  petted,  looked  after,  in  a  way  that  expanded  the 
stranger's  heart  with  wonder. 

What  a  transition  for  Madame  Stauff er  —  from  the 
hall-bedroom  of  a  dingy  boarding-house  in  Washing 
ton  to  the  heart  of  this  broad,  luxurious,  esthetic 
home,  where  life  ran  on  well-oiled  wheels,  where  flow 
ers  and  sunshine  banished  winter,  where  the  delicious 
scent  of  burning  hickory  arose  from  the  fireplaces, 
where  books  and  pamphlets,  old  and  new,  were  scat 
tered  on  all  sides ! 

Sara,  who  by  nature  dearly  loved  easy-chairs  and 
sweet  odors  and  warm  sunshine,  and  by  theory  as 
well  as  necessity  renounced  them,  was  for  a  moment 
staggered,  at  the  outset  of  her  visit  to  her  old  pupil. 

She  had  not,  for  some  reason,  counted  upon  all  this. 
Marion,  always  simple  in  her  dress  and  habits,  had 
been,  while  in  college,  under  the  yoke  of  a  period  of 
self-denial.  Everything  not  absolutely  necessary  had 
been  by  her  vowed  to  students  poorer  than  herself, 
to  philanthropic  or  charitable  enterprises  nurtured 
among  them.  And,  since  Miss  Irving's  father  had 
never  thought  it  wise  to  give  her  the  control  of  funds, 
her  scanty  pocket-money  had  not  gone  far  in  the  direc 
tion  indicated.  Her  want  of  finery  had  often  been 
discussed  among  her  fellows.  She  was,  in  fact,  re 
garded  as  one  of  the  students  kept  in  college  by  an 
effort  on  the  part  of  their  parents  or  guardians. 

Madame  Stauffer,  after  weighing  against  the  price 
of  board  in  Washington  the  expense  of  a  railway 
journey  to  New  York,  had  decided  that  the  affair, 
even  if  Marion's  way  of  living  were  rather  pinched, 
would  be  "  worth  while."  A  two  weeks'  stay  would 


A  BACHELOE   MAID  29 

justify  her  outlay.  And  for  many  reasons  Sara  had 
long  and  ardently  desired  a  visit  to  the  great  me 
tropolis.  She  was  of  the  army  of  modern  thinkers 
who  declare,  "  Better  a  garret  in  New  York  "  than  a 
first-floor  bedroom  in  the  " half-baked"  cities  else 
where  to  be  found  in  America — an  expression  for 
which  Madame  Stauffer's  class  must  stand  responsible. 

In  the  short  time  that  had  elapsed  since  her  arrival, 
Sara  had  been  put  into  possession  of  the  chief  facts 
of  her  friend's  recent  experience  of  the  heart;  of 
Marion's  doubts,  fears,  and  ambitions  for  a  more 
fully  developed  intellectual  existence;  of  her  diffi 
culty  in  finding  true  sympathy  with  her  aims  among 
the  people  she  was  cast  with ;  of  her  conviction  that 
there  was  a  key  to  the  higher  philosophy  of  living, 
if  she  could  only  lay  hand  on  it;  of  her  longing  to 
be  something — if  it  were  but  a  unit  —  in  the  great 
cause  of  the  evolution  of  true  womanhood. 

Madame  Stauffer,  a  slight,  pleasing  woman  of 
thirty-one  or  -two,  with  dark,  diamond-bright  eyes 
and  an  irradiating  smile,  looked  down  from  her 
throne  among  the  cushions  on  the  corner  of  Marion's 
divan  next  the  fire,  at  the  noble,  earnest,  dilating 
creature  seated  upon  a  low  stool  at  her  feet.  They 
had  dressed  for  dinner,  and  returned  to  wait  in  the 
drawing-room  till  that  meal  should  be  announced. 

In  her  room  —  Marion's  room  vacated  for  her  — 
Sara,  left  alone,  had  sped  from  object  to  object  of 
its  luxurious  furnishings,  examining  them  curiously. 
She  had  even  turned  up  a  corner  of  the  old  Genoese 
coverlet  of  flowered  cotton  edged  with  antique  lace, 
to  see  the  silk  lining  underneath. 


30  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  Cotton  on  top,  silk  underneath  !  That  is  the  real 
thing !  When  could  I  have  afforded  such  ?  "  she  said, 
with  a  pang  of  envy.  "  Every  thread  of  silk  in  my 
life  has  done  duty  before  the  public  —  exhibited  for 
all  it  was  worth ! " 

The  couch,  the  writing-table,  the  sundry  mirrors, 
the  bath-room  opening  out  of  Marion's  bower,  had 
seemed  to  her  unbelievable. 

"A  porcelain  tub,  all  to  myself,  with  white  tiles 
underfoot,  has  always  seemed  to  me  something  in 
tended  for  the  angels,"  she  murmured  whimsically. 
"And  towels  like  these!  Long,  fine,  hemstitched, 
abundant !  Oh,  it  is  too  much ;  I  must  shut  the 
door,  and  not  think  of  the  bath-room,  or  my  brain 
can't  be  depended  upon  to  do  its  duty  and  pay  for 
the  privilege  of  using  all  this ! " 

She  had  put  on  the  one  best  gown  of  the  tradi 
tional  poor  heroine,  and,  opening  the  door  into  the 
corridor,  had  found  Marion  waiting  there  for  her, 
with  a  fresh  bunch  of  purple  violets.  There  is  no 
heart,  however  cold,  case-hardened,  worldly,  that 
cannot  be  touched  by  the  humanizing  offer  of  a 
bunch  of  fresh  violets.  They  are  the  open  sesame 
to  every  woman's  affections;  on  their  breath  arise 
the  most  tender  beseechings  to  loving-kindness;  un 
der  their  influence  the  recipient  longs  to  do,  say,  be 
something  delightful  to  the  giver. 

Sara  Stauffer  almost  cried  when  she  took  these 
from  the  hand  of  Marion.  It  was  the  finishing  touch 
to  her  newly  erected  dream-temple  of  comfort  and 
beauty  combined.  She  kissed  the  tall  girl,  inclining 
her  face  upward  to  do  so,  and,  twining  her  arm  round 
her  waist,  exclaimed,  as  they  went  down-stairs : 


A   BACHELOR   MAID  31 

"  O  Marion,  how  perfectly  happy  we  are  going 
to  be!" 

And  now  Marion,  whom  nothing  could  long  divert 
from  her  intense  purpose,  had  reverted  to  asking 
Sara's  advice. 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  want  to  go  in  for  public 
utterances  ?  "  Sara  answered,  vaguely  thinking  how 
hard  it  would  be  to  leave  this  nest  of  cushions  by  the 
fire  in  behalf  of  the  suffering  sisterhood. 

"  For  speaking  ? "  said  Marion,  a  little  startled,  yet 
dazzled  visibly.  "Oh,  I  should  never  be  allowed, 
never  !  After  you  have  seen,  you  will  know." 

"  Writing  over  your  own  name  ?  As  your  father's 
daughter,  that  would  mean  much." 

"  Even  if  I  dared  to  think  of  that,  Sara  —  for  you 
are  not  madame  to  me,  are  you,  any  longer  ?  You  are 
my  friend,  my  teacher;  you  are  going  to  be  my  sister 
spirit.  Think  of  a  woman  of  twenty-five  saying,  '  If 
I  dared  do  what  my  conscience  tells  me  is  right ! ' 
But  as  long  as  I  live  here  under  his  roof,  supported 
by  my  father,  I  can  do  so  little :  I  could  write  anony 
mously,  I  suppose." 

"There  are  so  many  who  write  well  whose  names 
don't  count,"  answered  Sara,  as  if  with  an  effort.  She 
had  just  caught  sight  of  Marion's  beautiful,  shapely 
foot  extended  upon  the  hearth-rug ;  of  its  casing  of 
fine  black  silken  openwork,  its  high-heeled  slipper  of 
patent  leather,  with  a. small  buckle  of  brilliants.  And 
Sara,  who  had  a  charming  foot  of  her  own,  did  so 
love  pretty  shoes  and  stockings,  and  had  had  so  few 
of  them !  "  Perhaps  we  can  work  out  between  us 
some  method  for  you  to  serve  the  Cause." 

"  Oh,  how  gladly  would  I  do  so !   If  I  might,  how 


32  A   BACHELOR  MAID 

gladly  would  I  give  up  all  this  cramping  luxury,  to 
go  out  and  work  for  and  with  rny  sisters,  as  you  have 
done ! " 

"  It  is  a  hard  life.  I  have  lectured  so  much  in  the 
last  year,  and  traveled  so  far,  that  my  physician  or 
dered  me  to  rest  in  the  comparatively  mild  climate  of 
Washington,"  said  Madame  Sara,  with  a  faint  sigh. 

"  Poor  thing ! "  said  Marion,  with  a  heartfelt  sigh. 
"And  so  you  divined  at  once  that,  in  the  hypothetical 
crisis  my  first  letter  laid  before  you,  I  was  stating  my 
own  case  ? " 

"Yes,  dear  child,"  answered  Sara,  caressingly. 
"And  to  tell  you  the  candid  truth,  I  was  a  little 
afraid  to  handle  it  freely,  as  you  asked  me  to  do." 

"Well,  it  is  all  settled  now.  You  can  speak  out 
now.  As  I  told  you.  a  little  while  ago,  I  am  already 
happier  to  be  free  from  the  torment  of  wondering  if 
I  loved  him  enough  to  accept,  for  his  sake,  the  further 
limitations  marriage  would  set  around  me." 

"Is  he  —  is  he  —  good-looking,  dear  child?"  Sara 
asked,  burying  her  little  nose  in  her  violets,  as  if  she 
could  not  get  enough  of  their  fragrance. 

"  I  suppose  you  would  think  so,"  answered  the 
girl.  "  He  is  on  rather  a  large  scale ;  but  most  peo 
ple  call  him  handsome." 

"And  successful  —  sure  to  rise  ? " 

Marion  was  a  little  surprised.  In  the  college  days 
Sara  had  affected  to  scorn  mere  externals  in  man 
kind,  to  hold  them  as  naught  beside  the  gold  of  heart 
and  mind. 

"  I  believe  people  say  he  is,"  she  said  almost  coldly. 

"  I  was  only  trying  to  gage  the  depth  of  your  re- 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  33 

nunciation,  my  love.  In  these  days  what  they  call  a 
good  match  is  so  hard  to  find,  and  the  world  is  so 
hard  upon  women  struggling  for  themselves,  it  is  al 
most  heroism  to  renounce  a  safe  marriage.  But  you 
—  what  am  I  thinking  of?  Your  future  is  secure  be 
yond  peradventure.  You,  no  matter  what  knocks 
and  thumps  you  may  get  from  the  public,  will  have 
the  sinews  of  war  provided.  You  have  only  to  be 
brave  and  steadfast,  and  in  time  all  things  will  come 
to  you." 

"  -Do  you  think  so  ? "  cried  Marion,  exultingly. 

"I  do.  Just  now,  while  you  are  still  young  and 
nominally  under  your  father's  control,  you  can  work 
for  the  ' Woman  Question'  alone.  By  and  by  you 
will  reach,  and  be  able  to  handle,  the  broader  phase 
of  it,  the  '  Marriage  Question/  which  is,  after  all,  or 
is  sure  to  absorb,  the  '  Woman  Question.' " 

"I  don't  quite  understand,"  said  Marion,  her  sweet, 
innocent  eyes  a  little  clouded  by  bewilderment. 

"  No ;  but  there  is  time  enough  for  that,"  said  Sara, 
nestling  down  with  fresh  abandonment  among  the 
pillows.  "  Those  of  us  who  are  victims  of  the  horri 
ble  mistake  of  marriage  with  men  we  could  not  pos 
sibly  knoAV  as  they  were  may  be  left  in  charge  of  that 
branch  of  the  subject.  I  see  you  are  too  much  afraid 
of  wounding  rne  to  ask  if  that  was,  indeed,  my  case. 
Some  day  I  will  tell  you  at  length  my  experience, 
luckily  brief.  My  husband,  a  German  professor  I 
met  at  a  friend's  house  in  Chicago,  and  married  three 
weeks  later,  died  of  yellow  fever  in  the  South  at  the 
end  of  a  year,  six  months  of  which  we  had  spent 
apart.  From  these  dates  you  may  see  my  bondage 

3 


34  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

did  not  long  endure.  But  it  has  left  in  me  an  ineffa 
ceable  sense  of  wrong,  and,  having  told  you  so  much, 
I  will  not  darken  the  enjoyment  of  the  hour  by  elab 
orating  on  the  theme." 

"  Don't  tell  me,  you  poor  dear  !  "  cried  Marion.  "  I 
am  sure  that,  whoever  was  wrong,  you  were  right ; 
that  you  did  everything  noble,  grand,  and  true." 

At  this  juncture  the  door  opened.  Madame  Stauf- 
fer,  who  had  paused  to  adjust  an  answer  to  Marion's 
enthusiastic  speech  was  prevented  from  uttering  it 
by  the  appearance  of  Hilary,  conveying  the  judge's 
message  to  his  daughter. 

''  Not  going  to  dine  with  us  ! "  exclaimed  the  new 
arrival,  in  what  Hilary  decided  to  be  "  a  forward  way, 
considerin'." 

"  Of  course  you  understand,  dear  girl,"  the  lady 
went  on,  as  they,  directly  afterward,  walked  in  to 
dinner,  "  that,  having  come  here  as  special  physician  in 
your  case,  I  am  all  impatience  to  possess  myself  of  it  in 
every  detail.  Until  I  know  your  father,  and  see  you 
with  him,  I  cannot  pretend  to  say  how  far  you  ought 
to  venture  in  maintaining  our  ideas  about  free  wo 
manhood.  Until  now  my  time  has  been  almost  ex 
clusively  occupied  with  wives,  not  daughters.  My 
mission  is  to  overcome  the  isolation  of  the  married 
woman,  to  reclaim  her  into  an  understanding  of  her 
rights,  to  show  her  there  are  other  things  to  absorb 
her  every  waking  thought  than  the  mere  subserviency 
to  a  husband  —  the  mere  bringing  into  the  world, 
and  up  in  the  world,  of  children.  Your  case,  being 
novel,  interests  me  greatly.  Yours  is  a  thraldom 
from  which  even  your  liberal  education  has  not  been 
able  to  free  you  —  " 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  35 

At  this  moment  Madame  Stauffer  dipped  her  spoon 
into  her  soup,  and  a  mouthful  of  velvety  creme  de 
celeri  found  its  way  to  her  palate. 

The  Swedish  dame  who  presided  over  the  stew- 
pans  of  Mr.  Justice  Irving  was,  in  her  way,  a  gem. 
In  spite  of  his  animadversions  upon  her  habit  of  mis 
understanding  the  divine  canvasback,  he  knew,  and 
everybody  knew,  she  could  be  trusted  to  send  up 
dinners  not  to  be  outdone  at  any  of  his  clubs.  For 
the  two  ladies  she  had  prepared  a  few  selected  plats 
only ;  but  they  were  cooked  to  perfection,  and  served 
by  the  butler  and  Hilary  on  the  silver  dishes  bearing 
the  Irving  crest.  The  little  round  snowy  table  in  the 
middle  of  the  big  crimson-hung  dining-room,  the 
shaded  candle-light  upon  the  silver  vase  of  white 
orchids  in  the  center,  the  "feel"  of  the  large  fine 
damask  napkins  across  her  knees,  renewed  in  Sara 
the  gentle  cerebral  intoxication  she  had  experienced 
over  the  porcelain  bath-tub  in  her  dressing-room. 
After  she  had  sipped  half,  a  glass  of  good  claret,  the 
color  rose  into  her  pale  cheeks,  her  diamond  eyes 
sent  forth  more  brilliant  rays,  she  talked  dashingly 
of  many  themes,  but  said  no  more,  that  night,  of 
advancing  the  day  when  women  shall  count  all  dross 
save  the  effort  of  her  intellect  to  dominate  slowly- 
awakening  man. 

"When  they  returned  to  the  drawing-room,  she  sat 
down  at  the  piano  and  played  so  exquisitely  as  to 
finish  the  subjection  of  Marion. 

"You  must  play  for  my  father,"  cried  the  girl. 
"  He  loves  music.  If  I  could  play  like  you,  I  believe 
he  would  have  loved  me,"  she  added,  with  sudden 
pathos. 


36  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"You  must  make  him  honor  your  courage,  your 
consistency/'  remarked  Sara,  her  white  fingers  twink 
ling  over  the  keys.  "It  is  a  great  mistake  for  wo 
man  to  suppose  that  she  is  dependent  on  man's  love 
for  her  earthly  happiness.  Great  Heaven!  When 
one  thinks  how  many  things  there  are  besides  men ! 
Are  not  we  two,  for  instance,  perfectly  cheerful,  com 
fortable,  well  entertained  by  each  other!  Why  on 
earth  should  we  hang  our  hopes  and  fears  upon  man's 
frowns  and  smiles,  as  most  women  do  ?  A  woman 
who  has  the  world's  applause,  the  world's  indorse 
ment,  will  she  not  often  throw  it  all  at  the  feet  of 
some  good-looking  animal,  and  be  wretched  if  he 
does  not  approve  of  her,  and  then  crawl  up  like  a 
spaniel  to  receive  a  pat  of  his  hand  ?  A  girl  like  you 
who  has  brains,  beauty,  wealth,  position,  power  to 
come  and  go,  why  should  her  life  be  blighted  because 
the  man  nature  has  chanced  to  place  in  charge  of  her, 
unsolicited  by  her,  refuses  to  smile  on  her  unless  she 
is  the  abject  echo  of  his  opinions?" 

"Why,  indeed?"  exclaimed  Marion,  kindling. 

"And,  all  said,  what  is  man  as  we  know  him  in  our 
generation?  I  pass  over  the  so-called  man  of  the 
world,  except  to  ask  you  if  a  season  passes,  in  your 
society,  when  you  don't  see  parents  ready  and  willing 
and  anxious  to  give  their  young  daughters  in  mar 
riage  to  the  heroes  with  whose  i  gallant'  adventures 
the  newspapers  have  been  filled  for  years  ?  Is  there 
ever  a  time  when  you  don't  hear  this  rich  bride 
groom's  gifts  of  jewels,  and  horses,  houses,  publicly 
extolled  before  other  young  girls  as  an  incentive  for 
them  to  go  and  do  likewise,  if  they  can  ?  Let  such 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  37 

things  go.  I  speak  particularly  of  the  man  of  our 
homes,  the  average  man  we  are  called  on  to  honor 
and  obey.  Is  n't  he  a  petty  creature  when  you  see 
him  behind  the  scenes  ?  A  captious,  whimsical  being, 
unjust,  and  unwilling  to  admit  himself  in  the  wrong. 
Are  his  purpose,  achievement,  fair  play,  to  be  all 
devoted  to  outer  affairs,  and  left  down-town  in  his 
office,  to  hang  behind  the  door  there  till  he  puts  them 
on  again  next  day  ?  Why  must  he  be  wheedled  —  as 
God  knows  all  women  have  to  wheedle  —  in  order  to 
purchase  peace  at  home  f  This  is  the  cry  of  thou 
sands  of  quiet  home-keeping  women,  if  they  only 
dared  voice  it.  This  is  one  of  the  things  we  are 
trying  to  help  them  to  speak  out  —  and  the  time  is 
coming  when  speak  they  surely  will." 

"  Do  you  believe  that  all  marriages  end  in  this,  if 
they  end  in  nothing  worse?"  said  Marion,  with  a 
shade  of  regret  in  her  honest  voice. 

"  My  dear,  if  Asmodeus  could  lift  the  roofs  of  all 
the  houses  of  all  your  acquaintances  to-night,  to  jot 
down  statistics  of  woman's  dissatisfaction  in  his  note 
book,  I  'm  afraid  there  would  be  few  from  which  he 
would  go  away  carrying  a  blank  page.'1 

She  struck  into  a  bit  of  Chopin  that  might  have 
been  composed  by  Asmodeus  on  his  return  from  such 
a  statistical  round  as  she  described.  Marion  shivered, 
as  if  with  cold,  and  Sara,  jumping  up,  shut  the  lid  of 
the  pianoforte,  abruptly. 

"  Come  over  to  the  fire,"  she  said.  "  Do  you  mind 
my  taking  your  tongs,  and  playing  with  your  log? 
For  so  long  I  have  dreamed  of  a  wood-fire  with  lib 
erty  to  poke  at  it  unchecked." 

3* 


38  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  But,  Sara,  you  have  not  answered  me.  Do  you 
believe  all  marriage  is  a  bar  to  the  intellectual  de 
velopment  of  woman?" 

"My  dear,  do  you  know  what  a  Girton  girl  re 
marked  not  long  ago  ?  '  All  might  yet  be  well  with 
us,  if  we  could  only  have  three  generations  of  single 
women.  " 

"  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that.  I  have  too  much 
tenderness  for  the  memory  of  my  mother."  Marion 
looked  over  wistfully  at  an  oil-painting  of  a  pale, 
slender  lady  in  a  robe  of  velvet  and  sable  fur,  hang 
ing  upon  the  wall.  "  That  was  done  by  Cabanel  from 
an  old  photograph  some  years  ago,  and  my  father 
thinks  it  very  like  her.  She  was  an  invalid,  in  charge 
of  nurses,  for  years  before  she  died;  and  I  was  not 
allowed  to  be  much  with  her.  But  I  remember  cer 
tain  expressions  of  her  face  when  I  came  into  the 
room  —  yearning  expressions,  as  I  now  interpret 
them.  She  seemed  to  be  wanting  to  save  me  from 
something  that  had  overtaken  her.  The  son  she  lost 
just  before  her  own  death  was  her  joy  and  comfort. 
She  had  no  fears  of  any  kind  for  him." 

"Do  you  not  see?"  exclaimed  Sara.  " She  wanted 
you  to  be  spared  the  inevitable  disappointments  of 
marriage  and  maternity.  So  long  hovering  on  the 
threshold  of  another  world,  may  not  she  have  had 
power  to  see  what  was  in  store  for  a  girl  of  your 
strength  of  character?  She,  I  take  it,  was  of  a  yield 
ing  character." 

"Entirely  so,  I  think.  The  gentlest,  timidest,  of 
women.  I  remember  that  when,  just  before  she  died, 
she  called  me  to  her,  and  said  she  had  arranged,  by 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  39 

will,  that  I  should  have  an  independent  income  upon 
reaching  the  age  of  twenty -five,  she  uttered  the  word 
'independent'  in  a  whisper,  looking  about  her  to  see 
that  no  one  was  in  the  room.  And  then  she  added: 
'  It  is  not  that  I  do  not  feel  your  dear  father  will  do 
all  that  is  just  and  best  for  you,  my  child.  His  judg 
ment  is  so  much  better  than  mine  that  you  lose  little 
in  losing  me.  But  perhaps  you  will  marry,  and  there 
are  moments  when  every  woman  likes  to  feel  she  has 
it  in  her  power  to  supply  her  own  needs  —  to  give  as 
she  likes.  Since  I  have  been  married,  your  father 
has  been  good  enough  to  lift  every  care  of  my  prop 
erty  from  me.  With  my  health,  indeed,  what  could 
he  do,  else  ?  I  have  had  only  to  sign  the  papers.  But 
you  may  not  get  such  a  husband  as  I  have  had,  my 
dear.'  A  nurse  came  in  just  then,  and  ordered  me 
away.  I  was  a  wide-eyed,  serious  child  of  twelve,  and 
my  mother's  words  sank  deep.  Two  days  later,  I  saw 
her  again — in  her  coffin.  After  she  was  carried  out 
in  it,  my  life  went  on  with  my  new  governess  almost 
as  before.  I  scarcely  missed  my  mother;  but  this 
was  not  my  fault." 

"  No,  poor  darling ! "  said  Sara.  "  But  I  trust  the 
governess  was  able  in  some  degree  to  supply  her 
place!" 

"  Miss  Ainslie  was  an  Englishwoman  of  the  most 
conventional  pattern.  She  had  brought  up  a  Lady 
Maud  and  a  Lady  Sylvia,  so  that  my  father  congratu 
lated  himself  upon  having  secured  her  on  her  first 
arrival  to  seek  a  far  higher  salary  in  New  York  than 
her  noble  employers  had  given  her  in  England.  But 
not  knowing  our  customs  in  America,  not  allowing 


40  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

for  the  impulse  of  revolt  against  authority  in  our  air, 
she  made  my  life, —  as  I  made  hers,  no  doubt, —  a 
wretched  one  for  six  long  years.  A  devotee  to  duty, 
she  never  left  me.  I  knew  every  one  of  her  maxims 
by  heart.  A-h-h !  Do  you  wonder  I  rejoiced  in  going 
to  our  college,  where  I  expanded  like  a  cellar-bred 
plant  in  the  sunshine?" 

"And  what  became  of  Miss  Ainslie?" 
"Her  father's  death  recalled  her  to  England.  I 
have  often  wondered  how  she  has  adapted  herself 
to  the  new  order  of  things  over  there  —  the  new  edu 
cation  for  women,  the  university  training,  that  was 
to  her  like  a  red  rag  to  a  bull  when  I  mentioned  it, 
here.  She  must  be  a  much  astonished  woman." 

"I  am  surprised  your  father  consented  to  let  you 
come  to  us  at  Somerville." 

"  You  could  not  have  been  more  surprised  than  I 
was.  I  was  eighteen,  just  ready  to  go  into  society, 
when  Miss  Ainslie  quitted  us.  My  father  waked  up 
to  confront  that  fact  with  genuine  dismay.  When  lie 
was  asked  by  my  Uncle  Joseph's  wife  if  he  meant  to 
give  me  a  coming-out  ball,  or  a  reception,  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  his  face.  Then  I  took  my  courage  in 
both  hands,  and  pleaded  to  be  sent  to  Somerville.  I 
have  always  felt  I  owed  the  permission  he  granted  to 
my  Aunt  Joseph's  offering  to  come  over  with  her 
girls,  and  arrange  the  details,  and  chaperon  the  affair 
of  my  debut." 

"  Your  father,  then,  has  an  aversion  to  society  ?  " 
"Not  at  all.     He  is  one  of  the  men  most  sought 
after  for  dinners,  where,  I  am  told,  he  is  the  life  of 
the  table.     Sometimes,  when  we  dine  out  together, 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  41 

I  peep  across  at  him  between  the  lights  and  flowers, 
and  wonder  if  he  can  be  the  same  man  I  see,  but 
don't  dare  interrupt  by  speaking  to,  behind  his 
morning  or  evening  newspaper.  I  am  proud  of  his 
looks,  of  his  wit,  of  his  youth,  for  he  is  younger  than 
most  of  his  confreres  —  barely  fifty  now.  Then  I  hope 
some  other  hostess  will  take  pity  on  me,  and  invite 
me  with  him,  so  that  I  too  can  be  charmed  by  him." 

"  I  understand,"  said  Sara,  sympathetically. 

"  Oftentimes  the  older  women  of  society  say  to  me, 
'  WJiat  a  lucky  girl  you  are,  to  have  that  delightful 
creature  to  yourself ! '  I  fancy  what  he  would  say  if  I 
told  him  he  is  called  '  a  delightful  creature.' " 

"And  where,  in  this  life  you  have  been  leading 
since  you  left  Somerville,  did  the  man  come  in  to 
whom,  you  have  just  ceased  to  be  engaged?" 

"  Alec  ?  I  have  known  him  always.  Better  since, 
after  his  graduation  at  the  law-school,  and  a  year  of 
study  in  Germany,  he  became  one  of  the  '  juniors '  in 
my  father's  law  firm.  For  my  father  is  in  his  first 
term,  as  you  know,  and  has  not  been  long  upon  the 
bench." 

"  I  think  I  rather  like  your  Mr.  Alec  Gordon,"  said 
Sara. 

"  I  'm  sure  /  do.  He  is  far  and  away  the  best 
friend  I  ever  had.  He  understands  me  as  well  as  a 
man  can  understand  a  woman.  Not  as  you  do,  dear ; 
that  could  not  be.  Intuition  like  yours  is  not  born 
into  man." 

"  It  must  have  cost  you  something  to  give  him  up," 
said  Sara,  narrowing  her  diamond  eyes  after  a  little 
nearsighted  fashion  not  unattractive. 


42  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  Yes.  I  wounded  him.  I  disappointed  him.  For 
a  time  he  will  feel  very  sore.  But,  feeling  as  I  do,  I 
am  not  fit  to  marry.  I  can't  tell  at  what  moment  I 
should  say  or  do  something  that  would  turn  him 
away  from  me  completely.  I  had  rather  keep  his 
friendship  than  ultimately  lose  his  respect." 

"  It  is  too  late  to-night  to  discuss  that  most  inter 
esting  question.  I  shall  have  to  study  you  all  before 
I  can  say  whether  I  indorse  your  action  thoroughly. 
But,  after  all,  you  should,  at  your  age,  be  your  own 
mistress." 

"Yes;  and  on  Saturday  I  come  into  uncontrolled 
possession  of  an  income,  not  large  according  to  values 
in  New  York,  but  a  boon  to  me — three  thousand  dol 
lars  a  year,  left  me,  as  I  told  you,  by  my  mother." 

"  Three  thousand  dollars  a  year!"  cried  Sara  Stauf- 
fer,  sitting  upright.  "Not  large?  Oh!  \vhat  could 
not  I  do  with  three  thousand  a  year,  safe,  secure, 
coming  in  regularly?  No  struggle  to  pay  rent,  to 
pay  board,  to  journey  from  place  to  place,  to  strain 
after  new,  whole  clothes.  Why,  you  who  are  cradled 
in  eider-down  have  no  conception  what  other  women 
live  on  —  what  the  world  you  are  so  anxious  to  go 
out  and  confront  is  to  us  who  are  at  its  mercy.  Try 
to  fancy  yourself  always,  for  instance,  in  one  of  those 
crowds  going  off  a  ferry-boat  or  pushing  into  the  car 
of  an  elevated  train.  That 's  my  world  of  every  day ! " 

"  It  shall  never  be  said,  when  I  have  the  means, 
that  I  forget  others  less  fortunate,"  answered  Marion, 
simply. 

"  I  am  not  afraid  of  you.  Forgive  my  vehemence," 
said  Sara,  relapsing  into  her  old  pose.  And  so  they 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  43 

talked,  till  the  fire  on  the  andirons  sank  into  the  sing 
ing  stage,  and  Madame  Stauffer,  gracefully  covering 
a  tiny  yawn,  announced  that  she  would  like  to  go 
to  bed. 

As  they  mounted  the  stairs,  the  butler,  who  had 
just  finished  adjusting  his  master's  little  arrange 
ments  for  a  comfortable  closing  of  the  evening,  came 
out  of  the  library. 

"  What  a  lovely  room  !  "  exclaimed  Sara.  "  Might 
I  take  one  little  peep  ? " 

"  I  rarely  go  in,"  said  Marion,  while  nervously  pre 
ceding  her  friend  across  the  threshold. 

''Poor  Fatima!"  laughed  Madame  Stauffer.  "I 
believe  if,  after  finding  her  predecessors  hanging  in  a 
gory  row,' she  had  had  courage  to  face  Bluebeard,  and 
threaten  to  report  him  to  the  police,  there  would  have 
been  no  need  of  the  brothers  riding  up  to  deliver  her. 
In  our  version,  if  there  are  any  deliverers,  they  shall 
be  sisters.  Ah,  what  treasures  of  bindings!  Now  I 
happen  to  know  something  about  good  bindings." 

"  What  do  you  not  know  ?"  asked  Marion,  one  ear 
alert  for  her  father's  latch-key  in  the  door  below. 

u  I  see  we  had  better  not  stay.  What  if,  some  day, 
he  asks  us  to  come  in  here  and  visit  him  ?  " 

"  He  will  never  do  that,  Sara." 

Sara  was  not  so  sure.  Still,  it  was  very  well  for 
Miss  Ainslie's  pupil  to  preserve  her  illusions  on  this 
as  on  many  other  subjects. 

At  this  moment  they  both  heard  the  click  of  the 
latch-key  in  the  lock  of  the  front  door. 

"  Shall  we  go  up  ? "  asked  Marion,  catching  her 
breath  a  little. 


44  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"Just  as  you  like,"  her  guest  answered  carelessly. 
As  the  two  moved  along  the  corridor,  Judge  Irving 
mounted  the  stairs.  It  seemed  impossible  that  he 
should  not  have  been  aware  of  their  presence,  but  he 
gave  no  sign  —  opening  the  library  door,  and  retiring 
within,  with  the  magisterial  dignity  of  his  usual 
movements. 

"You  do  resemble  him  strongly,"  remarked  Ma 
dame  Stauffer,  who,  through  those  narrow,  deep- 
fringed  eyes  of  hers,  managed  to  take  in  much  of 
the  fleeting  show  of  life. 


Ill 


T  was  the  witching  hour  of  dinner  at 
the  Antediluvian  Club.  The  tables 
in  the  dining-room  were,  for  the 
most  part,  occupied.  Men  dining 
alone,  in  eclipse  behind  one  or  an 
other  of  the  favorite  evening  papers, 
eating  or  drinking  intermittently  the  while,  accounted 
for  the  disappearance  from  the  reading-room  of  all 
the  most  desirable  journals.  Parties  of  two  or  three 
men — comfortable-looking  bankers,  brokers,  lawyers, 
doctors,  with  snowy  shirt-fronts  and  complexions  of 
mantling  red  —  laughed  and  jested  together,  making 
the  most  of  their  hours  of  good  cheer,  free  from  pro 
fessional  or  financial  cares.  Here  and  there,  sitting 
alone,  might  have  been  seen  a  man  to  whom  neither 
the  current  tidings  of  the  outer  world  nor  the  society 
of  his  fellows  offered  a  surcease  of  the  pressure  of 
affairs.  Upon  his  brow  lingered  the  never-relaxing 
lines  of  worry.  By  and  by  his  place  will  be  found 
vacant,  and  the  other  men  will  read  paragraphs  an 
nouncing  his  death  from  apoplexy  or  heart-failure,  or 
—  if  the  struggle  has  been  particularly  long  and 
fierce,  and  the  disappointment  crushing  —  by  suicide. 
Among  these  groups  no  trace  was  seen  of  the 

45 


46  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

familiar  figure  of  " Johnny"  Waters.  Since  time 
out  of  mind,  this  veteran  had  been  a  feature  of  the 
Antediluvian  at  its  prandial  function.  He  was  a 
spare  old  bachelor,  living,  no  one  knew  where  or  how 
— "over  Chelsea  way,"  some  quidmmc,  bolder  than 
the  rest,  had  ventured  to  assert. 

Neither  did  any  one  know  when  Waters  had  pos 
sessed  a  new  suit  of  clothes.  He  was,  however,  clean, 
if  rusty,  and  his  pocket,  like  the  widow's  cruse,  was 
at  no  time  entirely  empty ;  it  contained  a  few  pieces 
of  gold,  which  he  had  the  habit  of  playing  with,  but 
never  changed. 

His  diversions  were  an  occasional  game  of  billiards, 
pool,  or  cards,  in  which  his  adversaries  were  dis 
creetly  selected  from  among  the  feebler  folk,  who 
might  be  depended  upon  to  pay  the  club-tax  for  the 
game,  charged  always  to  the  player  who  loses. 

An  authority  in  gastronomy,  the  cooks  and  ser 
vants  treated  him  with  respect,  the  club  frequenters 
bowed  down  to  his  dicta :  and  there  was  hardly  a  day 
when  he  did  not  dine  well  with  and  at  the  expense  of 
somebody  whose  dinner  he  had  ordered  by  special 
request.  On  occasions  when  an  opportunity  for  this 
thrifty  exchange  of  benefits  did  not  present  itself, 
Mr.  Waters,  after  long  waiting  for  an  invitation, 
usually  denied  himself  a  dinner.  Arriving  at  the 
club  regularly  at  about  five  in  the  afternoon,  it  was 
his  custom  to  order  toast  and  a  cup  of  tea  —  probably 
his  first  meal,  so  whispered  the  gossips,  since  the 
liberal  repast  overnight,  superintended  by  him,  and 
paid  for  by  "  the  other  fellow."  As  the  dinner-hour 
drew  near,  and  men,  dropping  in,  went  to  the  desk  to 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  47 

inscribe  their  orders,  he  would  be  espied  wandering 
about  with  a  blameless  expression  of  innocence  upon 
his  withered  old  face.  What,  then,  more  natural  than 
that  some  would-be  diner,  assured  of  getting  thereby 
the  best  the  club  contained,  should  ask  "Johnny"  if 
he  were  disengaged  for  dinner? 

To-night,  upon  his  absence  the  jokers  chose  to 
hang  the  time-honored  story  that  he  was  either  walk 
ing  in  the  square  below,  engaged  in  buckling  up  his 
belt,  or  else  eating  macaroni  in  a  cheap  Italian  res 
taurant.  But  the  morrow  would  see  him  at  his  post, 
renewed  in  hope. 

It  was  at  the  period  of  the  repast  when  most  men's 
orders  had  been  served,  that  Mr.  Robert  Crouch  —  the 
opponent  at  billiards  of  Mr.  Justice  Irving — was  wont 
to  appear  upon  the  scene. 

Short,  thick-set,  breathing  stertorously,  with  his 
waistcoat  well  exposed  to  view,  his  protruding  eyes 
taking  in  the  tables  as  he  passed,  Crouch  had  the 
offensive  habit  of  slowly  sauntering  the  length  of  the 
dining-room,  scrutinizing  every  table,  and  gaging  the 
social  value  of  every  man  according  to  the  dinner 
spread  before  him. 

"  Don't  talk  to  me  about  him,  sir,"  he  had  once  ob 
served  regarding  a  local  dignitary.  "He  's  a  pre 
tender —  a  mere  pretender.  Why,  when  I  met  him 
just  after  he  had  ordered  his  dinner  yesterday,  and 
casually  asked  him  what  he  was  going  to  have,  he 
said,  '  Well,  for  one  thing,  woodcock.'  And  blame 
me,  sir,  if,  when  I  passed  up  the  room,  I  did  n't  see 
him  in  the  corner  pegging  away  at  a  blanked  old 
prairie-chicken  ! " 


48  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

Mr.  Crouch,  like  Mr.  Waters,  did  not  object  to  being 
bidden  to  sit  at  the  table  of  his  friends.  With  all  his 
bluster  at  the  Waiters,  and  all  his  braggadocio  about 
living  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  he  was,  when  dining 
alone,  generally  observed  to  be  attacking  a  slice  from 
a  joint,  and  a  couple  of  baked  potatoes. 

To-night,  having  accomplished  his  customary  es 
pionage,  and  driven  several  quiet  citizens  to  the  length 
of  a  wish  to  strangle  him  for  his  impertinence,  Mr. 
Crouch  stopped  before  a  table  laid  for  two  in  the 
upper  end  of  the  room. 

"  Who  's  due  here,  Clarkson  ? "  he  asked  of  that 
gentleman,  just  come  in  to  take  his  own  bit  of  fish 
and  some  chops  at  the  adjoining  table. 

u  Don't  know,  I  'm  sure,"  answered  Clarkson.  "  I  'm 
late  myself ;  just  stopped  a  minute  to  enter  a  line  in 
the  complaint-book  about  the  disgusting  way  these 
waiters  breathe  into  one's  back  hair.  If  a  man  hap 
pens  to  be  bald,  as  I  am,  it  makes  him  sneeze,  by 
Jove ! " 

"  What  was  the  complaint  yesterday  ?  "  said  Crouch 
facetiously. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  remember.  Probably  that  the  floor  of 
that  wretched  library  shakes  so  confoundedly  I  can't 
digest  when  I  go  in  to  read  after  dinner." 

"Who  is  this  table  reserved  for?"  asked  Crouch, 
beckoning  the  head  waiter,  who  was  not  imposed  upon 
by  his  large,  authoritative  manner. 

"Mr.  Gordon,  sir,"  said  the  functionary,  turning 
away  at  once. 

"Alec  Gordon  ?  Who  's  he  going  to  dine,  I  wonder  ? 
Quite  a  spread,  to  judge  from  the  forks  and  glasses  ! 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  49 

Have  you  heard  they  are  putting  Gordon  forward  for 
United  States  Attorney,  Clarkson  !  " 

"  Fact  ? "  said  Clarksou,  with  animation. 

"  Yes.  They  are  working  it  up  among  them ;  and 
by  Jove  !  sir,  with  the  luck  that  chap  has,  I  should  n't 
in  the  least  wonder  if  he  gets  it." 

"I  'm  for  him,  and  here  's  to  his  success,"  said 
Clarksou,  draining  his  glass  of  claret.  "But  even 
Gordon's  luck  goes  under,  sometimes.  His  engage 
ment  with  Marion  Irving  is  off,  by  mutual  agree 
ment.  I  have  n't  the  pleasure  of  knowing  the  young 
lady  personally,  but  she  's  a  splendid  creature  to 
look  at,  a'nd  I  condole  with  him  over  the  loss  of  her." 

"  She  's.no  loss  to  a  man  in  his  senses,"  said  Crouch, 
with  a  sardonic  laugh.  "  Why,  she  's  daft,  or  nearly 
so,  over  '  women's  rights ' !  " 

"  What  extraordinary  capers  these  females  are  up 
to,  nowadays!"  replied  the  cheerful  Clarkson.  "If 
you  believe  me,  I  got  a  notice  from  a  committee  of 
them,  requesting  me  and  'all  the  adult  members'  of 
my  '  household '  to  call  somewhere  to  sign  a  petition 
to  strike  out  of  our  State  constitution  the  word  male 
as  a  qualification  for  voters.  Now,  I  have  n't  any 
household ;  but  if  I  had,  why  should  n't  they  ask  my 
babies  as  well  as  my  adults,  if  the  thing  is  to  put 
everybody  on  the  same  footing1?  Last  year  it  was 
street-cleaning.  All  the  pretty  women  went  at  you 
at  dinners,  and  asked  if  you  had  influence  with  vari 
ous  'bosses'  whom  they  'longed'  to  know.  Well, 
they  accomplished  then  what  they  set  out  to  do, 
those  charming  creatures,  I  must  confess;  but  why 
can't  they  rest  on  those  laurels  ?  The  year  before  it 


50  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

was  the  abolition  of  ash-barrels.  You  could  u't  open 
your  mouth  to  a  girl  at  a  party  without  having  an 
ash-barrel  thrust  into  it !  They  've  had  their  dab  at 
city  politics;  and  as  to  the  Higher  Education  of 
Women,  the  University  Settlement,  and  the  Kinder 
garten  Association,  those  we  have  alway  with  us  — 
and  we  are  allowed  to  buy  tickets,  or  send  checks  for 
boxes  for  their  entertainments,  to  an  almost  unlim 
ited  extent ! " 

"And  Marion  Irving  is  in  the  front  rank  of  all 
this,"  put  in  Crouch,  who  did  not  relish  having  to 
listen  to  so  long  a  disquisition.  "What  's  more, 
she  's  got  the  Woman  Question  for  a  bee-in-her-bon- 
net,  which  lots  of  the  others  have  n't.  If  I  were  Irv 
ing,  I  'd  lock  that  girl  up,  or  send  her  traveling  with 
a  keeper;  and,  if  he  does  n't  do  something  of  that  kind, 
she  11  end  by  coming  to  no  good." 

"  Hush  ! "  said  Clarkson,  warningly ;  but  it  was 
too  late.  Gordon,  accompanied  by  a  blond-bearded, 
smiling  young  man  who  had  something  foreign  in 
his  aspect,  was  close  upon  them,  and  must  have 
heard  every  word  of  the  close  of  Crouch's  speech. 

A  surge  of  anger  came  over  Gordon's  face.  Wheel 
ing  quickly,  he  spoke  in  the  offender's  ear  a  few  evi 
dently  stinging  words,  whereat  Crouch,  uncomfor 
tably  red,  turned  away,  relieved  by  the  coincident 
summons  of  a  waiter  to  his  modest  meal  served  in  a 
sequestered  corner  of  the  room. 

"  Ha  !  Clarkson,"  resumed  Gordon,  quietly,  "  I  hope 
that  cad  has  n't  taken  away  your  appetite.  Come, 
after  dinner,  and  let  me  make  you  known  to  my 
friend  Baron  Stremof,  a  Russian,  just  arrived." 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  51 

"  Charmed,  my  dear  fellow,  but  what  the  deuce  am 
I  to  speak  in  ? "  whispered  Clarkson. 

"  English,  of  which  he  's  a  master/'  returned  Gor 
don,  going  on  to  place  his  friend  at  table,  and  to 
introduce  him  to  a  plate  of  tiny  oysters — a  visible 
disappointment,  as  to  size,  for  the  new-comer. 

"You  had  not — pardon  me — a  very  agreeable  mo 
ment  in  getting  rid  of  the  man  who  offended  you," 
said  Stremof,  lightly.  "  But  it  was,  at  any  rate,  ef 
fectual.  And  these  are  the  famed  oysters — Blue 
Points,  you  call  them.  The  flavor  makes  amends  for 
their  limited  caliber." 

"  We  reject  the  large  ones,  purposely,  when  served 
in  this  way.  For  once,  you  will  find  America  not 
anxious  to  illustrate  her  excellence  by  size." 

"  Oh,  you  will  not  find  me  agreeing  with  any  slur 
put  upon  America,"  said  Stremof,  with  delightful 
animation.  "It  has  been  the  ambition  of  my  life  to 
visit  your  country.  And  your  Exposition  at  Chicago 
has  made  of  last  summer  an  ineffaceable  dream  of 
beauty  to  me.  At  even  this  distance  of  time  the 
White  City  appears  to  me  amid  a  luminous  haze  con 
cealing  all  the  petty  vulgarity  that  must,  of  neces 
sity,  attend  upon  such  a  spectacle.  I  am  more  than 
ever  lost  in  wonder  at  the  fresh  vigor  of  its  concep 
tion,  and  the  enormous  abilities  displayed  in  carry 
ing  it  out.  But  I  believe,  already,  you  astonishing 
Americans  are  checking  each  other  for  allusion  to 
the  crowning  glory  of  your  age.  A  young  woman 
of  Chicago  told  me  I  must  no  longer  speak  of  the 
Columbian  Fair — that  it  is,  by  now,  'a  chestnut.' 
Fancy !  how  delicious !  I  wrote  home  this  little 


52  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

anecdote,  and  with  it  I  am  confident  of  amusing  my 
friends  in  Petersburg.  "Would  she  consider  St. 
Peter's  of  Rome,  or  St.  Mark's  of  Venice,  '  a  chest 
nut,'  may  I  ask  ?  " 

There  was  no  venom  in  the  lively  strictures  of 
Stremof,  whose  buoyant  enjoyment  of  the  world  and 
of  himself  made  him  pleasant  company.  Everything 
interested  him;  nothing  escaped  him. 

"  If  it  has  accomplished  nothing  else,  the  Fair  has 
made  us  better  known  and  understood  by  our  friends 
from  across  the  water,"  Gordon  said.  "  And  I  think 
it  has  led  them  to  understand,  at  last,  that  creation 
in  art  is  possible  to  us." 

"  My  dear  friend,"  exclaimed  the  Russian,  knocking 
over  a  glass  of  Sauterne  in  his  enthusiasm/'  who  could 
fail  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  those  splendid  palaces 
of  white  '  staff ' —  built  for  a  day,  and  already  vanished 
into  the  fairy -land  of  dreams  from  which  they  came  — 
typified  the  new  birth  of  art  from  the  virgin  soil  of 
America?  What  struck  me  most,  after  that,  was  the 
serious  way  in  which  the  crowds,  assembled  to  do  it 
homage,  received  their  impressions  of  your  Fair.  I 
thought  those  people  from  remote  towns  and  villages, 
who  had  journeyed  such  immense  distances,  were  es 
pecially  interesting  to  watch.  They  seemed  dazzled, 
oppressed,  shy  —  but,  through  it  all,  proud  and  in 
spired.  Henceforth,  I  thought,  whatever  they  may 
read  in  their  papers  about  the  Old  World,  they  will 
understand  and  enjoy.  Some  day  they  will  bring  their 
modernism  to  visit  our  antiquity  —  and,  when  they 
see  our  treasures,  will  not  be  ashamed  because  they 
have  had  nothing  of  that  sort  of  their  own.  But  here, 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  53 

as  usual,  I  let  my  feelings  run  away  with  me.  I 
radote,  instead  of  doing  justice  to  your  menu." 

"  You  say  you  have  always  had  a  wish  to  know  us 
better,"  rejoined  his  host.  "  I  can  only  regret  you 
have  put  it  off  so  long.  Carroll's  letter  tells  me  you 
are  amusing  yourself  by  contributing  studies,  social 
and  economical,  of  American  affairs  to  some  of  your 
Russian  journals.  I  wish  I  could  enjoy  them." 

"  I  am  indeed  well  protected  by  my  language.  But 
I  am  not  afraid  for  any  of  my  American  friends  to 
read  them.  They  tell  me,  if  anything,  my  letters  are 
too  uniformly  couleur  de  rose.  Yes,  for  some  years 
before  I  came  I  had  been  gathering  facts  about  you. 
Carroll,  who  is  a  charming  fellow,  and  much  liked  in 
Petersburg,  put  me  up  to  the  books  I  must  read  to 
understand  your  social  side.  I  wish  you  could  have 
seen  the  bewilderment  of  an  old  countess  with  whom 
I  go  to  take  tea  —  who  is  by  way  of  being  an  amateur 
in  your  literature  —  after  I  left  with  her  a  volume  of 
American  stories  in  dialect.  '  But,  my  dear  boy/  she 
said  to  me,  '  as  well  expect  my  old  teeth  to  crack 
nuts !  " 

"And  now,"  said  Gordon,  smiling,  "  I  suppose  you 
wish  to  find  the  originals  of  the  types  you  have  met 
in  our  novels." 

"  You  have  hit  the  mark !  Here  is  my  complaint  — 
I  have  not  met  one  of  them.  Where  are  they  ?  In  the 
ateliers  of  the  writers,  behind  screens,  supporting  a 
mass  of  different  costumes  to  be  put  on  when  the  lay 
figure  is  required  ?  Everybody  I  meet  is  conventional. 
I  could  do  as  well  in  London,  Paris,  Vienna,  Rome,  or 
by  staying  at  home  in  Petersburg,  Your  clubs  are 


54  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

superb,  but  the  men  in  them  are  like  those  I  see  in 
such  places  abroad  j  your  houses  are  little  palaces, 
crowded  with  works  of  art.  Your  women,  perpetually 
on  the  wing,  sip  sweets  from  the  fashions  and  customs 
of  every  country  to  bring  home.  Even  in  the  far  cit 
ies  of  the  West  I  found  furniture  and  costumes  and 
modes  of  living  like  these  here,  and  all  under  the  eter 
nal  glare  of  electricity.  Imagine  a  continent  full  of 
New  Yorks !  Your  men,  more  original  in  thought  and 
expression  than  your  women,  are  fast  becoming  super- 
civilized.  I  am  in  despair.  If  I  could  only  meet  on 
the  street  a  lady — Bloomer,  c'est  $a,  west-ce  pas  ?  —  in 
her  trousers  and  pot-hat,  I  should  be  happier.  But  it 
seems  to  me  that,  even  in  London,  the  women  are  more 
fearless  in  action,  in  expression  of  opinion,  than  your 
women.  I  wish  I  could  know  an  American  unmarried 
woman  of  the  sort  I  have  dreamed  of.  I  should  not 
write  about  her  in  my  notes  for  publication,  ~blcn 
entendu,  but  I  should  enshrine  her  in  my  heart." 

"  It  would  take  me  some  time  to  explain  to  you  the 
transition  stage  of  society  which  is  responsible  for 
what  you  charge/'  said  Gordon. 

Stremof  was  silenced  by  his  first  introduction  to 
terrapin.  But  not  for  long. 

"  This  is  wonderful !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  I  now  con 
fess  to  you,  my  friend,  that  it  was  with  a  species  of 
resigned  terror  I  tasted  your  national  delicacy  a  mo 
ment  since.  Last  year  Carroll,  who  wished  to  make 
some  acknowledgment  of  my  father's  friendship  for 
him,  ordered  to  be  sent  to  our  house,  express  from 
America,  some  terrapin  in  tins.  I  have  since  learned 
they  had  cooked  and  sealed  it  at  the  last  moment 


A  BACHELOE   MAID  55 

before  the  fast  steamer  sailed,  and  had  expedited  it 
direct  to  Russia  in  the  care  of  a  friend,  scarcely 
daring  to  hope  it  could  arrive  in  good  condition  for 
immediate  use.  But  my  father,  not  understanding 
this,  had  his  wait  re  d'hotel  put  the  dainty  away  until 
the  belated  occasion  of  a  dinner  of  ceremony  to  which 
Carroll  was  invited.  The  American  dish  came  on ; 
alas !  it  was  left  upon  every  plate !  Poor  dear  Carroll, 
who  did  not  in  the  least  recognize  it,  had  covered  his 
portion  with  a  piece  of  bread  when  he  heard  my 

father  announcing  to  Count  X upon  his  right 

that  this  was  the  famous  terrapin  of  North  America ! 
My  dear  friend,  let  me  thank  you,"  he  added  radiantly, 
extending  his  hand,  which  the  amused  Gordon  shook. 
"  You  have  not  only  saved  Carroll's  reputation,  but 
you  have  given  me  new  bliss  !  " 

Over  their  coffee,  Clarkson  joined  them,  and  their 
merry  talk  was  prolonged  till  Gordon  hurried  Stremof 
off  to  hear  Calve  in  "  Carmen,"  and  to  make  acquain 
tances  in  the  boxes  of  a  number  of  his  friends.  It  so 
happened  that,  for  this  night,  a  woman  inclined  to  be 
gracious  to  Marion  Irving  had  sent  a  note  inclosing 
three  tickets,  and  urging  Marion  to  join  her  in  her 
box,  bringing  "any  friends"  she  might  select. 

Marion,  who  had  no  taste  for  the  conversational 
patter  that  accompanies  the  opera  of  to-day,  had  been 
about  to  decline  the  offer  —  when  she  saw  in  the  eyes 
of  Sara  Stauffer  an  expression  interpreted  as  a  crav 
ing  for  the  music  so  little  within  her  possibilities. 

"I  could  take  tickets  in  the  parquet,  or  in  a  gal 
lery  where  it  will  be  possible  to  listen  in  peace,"  said 
Marion  ;  but  a  girl,  happening  in  at  the  moment,  as- 


56  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

sured  her  of  the  impossibility  of  buying  a  seat  for 
Calve  in  "  Carmen  "  at  that  late  hour. 

"  It  is  just  possible  Mrs.  Romaine  won't  be  in  her 
own  box,"  she  meditated ;  "  if  the  fancy  took  her  to 
go  to  see  Sandow  the  strong  man,  or  the  trained  ani 
mals,  she  would  follow  it,  and  leave  the  box  empty. 
Yes,  Sara,  we  will  go." 

Madame  Stauffer,  who  had  been  waiting  with  a 
strange  palpitation  of  anxiety  at  the  heart,  looked 
frankly  delighted,  and  cried  out  with  pleasure. 

"  I  am  hungering  for  opera,"  she  went  on.  "  But 
oh,  Marion,  you  know  my  wardrobe !  What  have  I  fit 
to  wear  I  There  is  a  poor  little  white  silk  made  long 
ago  for  a  concert  of  the  graduating  class  at  Somer- 
ville.  Perhaps,  if  I  bought  a  lot  of  that  soft  white 
chiffon,  and  put  it  on  in  full  ruffles  around  the 
neck  — " 

"  I  think  so,"  said  Marion,  absently ;  then,  remem 
bering  herself,  "  Dear  Sara,  how  vexatious  it  is  that  a 
woman  like  you  should  be  in  the  shackles  of  conven 
tionality  in  dress.  "Why  can't  we  soar  out  of  these 
petty  considerations  I  You  are  charming  in  the  little 
black  frock,  with  the  black  lace,  and  a  red  rose  in 
your  bodice." 

"  To  accomplish  what  we  seek,  we  should  never  let 
ourselves  be  remarked  for  singularity."  said  the  teacher. 
"Therefore,  darling,  as  we  are  driving  out,  if  you 
will  take  me  to  some  cheapish  place  to  buy  the 
chiffon  — " 

Marion,  obedient  to  a  certain  point,  directed  her 
coachman  to  stop  at  the  emporium  where  her  own 
purchases  of  that  sort  were  made.  A  fichu  of  fine 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  57 

white  gauze,  floating  at  a  breath  into  a  feathery  mass, 
was  found  already  made  by  skilled  fingers,  and  was 
supplemented  by  new  gloves  of  Sara's  number,  and 
the  offer  of  a  gift  of  Marion's  best  fan. 

"How  I  rejoice  in  ordering  these  things  to  be 
charged  to  my  own  account,"  meditated  the  girl.  "'No 
more  requests  to  step  into  the  library  to  explain  the 
items  upon  forgotten  bills.  But  it  surprises  me  that 
Sara  should  seem  so  glad  to  get  them.  I  suppose  it  is 
only  a  refinement  of  the  feeling  she  touched  upon  — 
her  objection  to  illustrate  Women's  Rights  by  peculi 
arity  of  costume." 

THEY  were  in  the  Romaines's  box  at  the  opera, 
alone,  when  Gordon  came  in  to  introduce  Stremof. 
As  Marion  had  predicted,  the  notional  owner  of  the 
premises  had  elected  to  remain  at  home,  or  to  go 
elsewhere. 

Gordon,  who,  designedly,  had  not  seen  Marion  since 
their  rupture, —  having  gone  off  on  business  of  his  firm 
for  a  "  little  American  journey  "  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
having  but  just  returned, —  observed  her  with  surprise 
in  the  company  of  this  peculiar  but  attractive-look 
ing  "  woman  in  white,"  whom  he  could  not  remember 
having  seen  with  her  before. 

For  a  moment  he  had  hesitated  in  the  lobby  at  the 
door  of  the  box.  Then,  telling  Stremof  he  was  about 
to  present  him  to  a  lady,  young  and  unmarried,  per 
haps  the  best  exponent  among  his  acquaintances  of 
the  "unfettered  American  spirit"  which  Stremof  as 
pired  to  meet,  he  opened  the  door  into  the  anteroom. 

Here,  in  the  surrounding  of  crimson  satin,  decorated 


58  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

with  mirrors  in  Florentine  gilt  frames, —  for  Mrs.  Ro- 
maine  knew  well  how  to  set  off  her  fading  looks, — 
they  found  the  two  women,  who  had  retired,  during 
an  entr'acte,  from  the  glitter  of  the  auditorium. 

They  were  a  pleasing  contrast,  nestling  toward  each 
other,  as  women  sit,  upon  the  crimson  cushions  of  a 
little  couch.  Sara,  dark,  lithe,  sparkling,  all  in  white ; 
Marion  in  satin,  as  usual,  the  color  of  her  hair,  with 
sleeves  and  scarf  of  a  topaz  yellow.  Unconsciously, 
she  had  placed  herself  against  her  long  coat  of  amber 
satin,  with  its  many  capes  bordered  with  otter  fur. 

Stremof,  the  impressionist,  seeing  this  artistic  "  com 
position,"  that  might  have  been  hung  with  effect  on 
the  line  in  the  Salon  of  the  Champ  de  Mars,  was  pos 
sessed  with  wonder  that  the  two  should  be  alone, 
when  all  the  other  women  he  had  visited  were  sub 
dividing  their  chitchat  and  attention  between  numer 
ous  male  callers.  He  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
divine  that  it  was  the  possession  of  the  very  indepen 
dence  of  thought  which  he  affected  to  be  in  search  of 
that  isolated  the  beautiful  and  distinguished  Marion 
Irving  from  the  class  she  belonged  to. 

When  Gordon  entered  the  box,  Marion  blushed,  and 
then,  feeling  that  the  Higher  Woman  would  not  have 
done  so,  blushed  again  at  having  blushed.  Sara,  per 
ceiving  as  much,  understood,  before  his  name  was 
mentioned,  who  this  great  manly  fellow  was.  Imme 
diately  falling  into  conversation  with  Gordon,  she  rose, 
and  returned  to  the  front  of  the  box  with  him,  followed 
by  Marion  and  Stremof. 

Sara's  boast  was  not  exactly  like  that  of  Wilkes,  the 
most  ill-favored  Englishman  of  his  day,  who  said  that, 


"THEY  WERE  A  PLEASING  CONTRAST." 


A  BACHELOE   MAID  61 

with  a  half -hour's  start,  he  would  not  be  afraid  of  the 
handsomest  man  in  the  kingdom ;  but  she  knew  how 
to  value  this  opportunity  to  make  a  first  impression 
upon  her  friend's  friend. 

Although  he  and  Marion  were  no  longer  lovers,  she 
had  early  realized  the  importance  of  Gordon's  opinion 
to  Marion,  and  to  a  more  formidable  power  in  the 
Irving  household.  She  recognized  that  this  strong, 
straightforward,  clean-minded  gentleman  was  not  to 
be  dealt  with  by  any  of  the  commonplace  methods 
known  to  women  who  set  themselves  to  attract  men. 
She  felt  that  he  would  not  be  easy  to  deceive.  Her 
supple  spirit,  confronting  his,  yielded  to  it  for  a  mo 
ment,  leaving  her  almost  at  a  loss.  Then,  rallying, 
she  determined  to  compel  him,  before  she  was  done 
with  him,  to  admire  her  talents,  enjoy  her  society, 
respect  her.  Ah  !  poor  Sara ! 

After  Gordon  had  talked  with  Madame  Stauffer 
during  a  longer  time  than  is  generally  allowed  in  a 
visit  of  the  sort,  he  changed  places  with  Stremof. 
The  latter,  finding  Marion  attractive,  had  yet  been 
baffled  by  her  odd  reserve.  He  was  rather  relieved 
to  plunge  into  a  merry  war  of  wits  with  her  com 
panion.  With  the  foreigner,  versed  in  such  arts, 
Sara  could  let  her  rare  facility  in  conversation  have 
full  swing.  She  flew  lightly  ahead  of  him,  putting 
Stremof  on  his  metal  to  keep  up  with  her,  and  yet  al 
lowed  him  to  perceive  that  he  entertained  her  thor 
oughly.  Like  most  strangers  visiting  America,  he 
could  not  see  the  reason  that,  had  he  been  an  ordinary 
frequenter  of  New  York  society,  would  have  made 
him  give  a  cold  shoulder  to  the  little  unknown  woman 


62  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

who  had  no  backing  except  Miss  Irvingfs  caprice  in 
friendship.  And  there  was  one  subject  upon  which 
they  did  not  spar :  Stremof,  himself  a  brilliant  musi 
cian,  saw  that  in  Sara  he  had  met  his  match. 

Thus,  while  their  friends  were  in  the  stream  of  ani 
mated  talk,  Gordon  and  Marion  profited  by  the  first 
occasion  for  communication  with  each  other  since  the 
breaking  of  their  engagement.  By  the  time  he  sat 
down  by  her  she  had  regained  her  self-possession,  and 
her  glance,  turned  upon  him,  was  full,  free,  and  cordial. 

"  You  have  not  told  me  how  you  like  my  friend  ?  " 
she  said,  dropping  her  voice,  after  a  few  generalities 
and  a  description  of  his  journey. 

"  I  have  been  patching  together  my  recollections  of 
what  you  have  said  about  your  acquaintances  at  Som- 
erville,  to  try  to  place  that  rather  dazzling  person." 

"In  those  days  she  was  Sara  Mills,  a  lecturer  to 
our  freshmen  on  English  literature.  After  leaving 
Somerville  she  married  a  German  professor,  a  Dr. 
Stauffer,  as  clever,  apparently,  as  she;  but  the  mar 
riage  was  not  happy,  and  he  died  very  soon.  I  can't 
say  that  Sara,  as  I  see  her  now,  in  the  least  suggests 
the  little  Miss  Mills  I  first  met.  She  is  the  most  pro 
tean  of  creatures,  and  fascinates  every  one." 

"  How  did  you  come  to  find  her  again  I " 

"  I  saw  in  a  woman's  journal  I  subscribe  for  that 
she  had  been  obliged  to  stop  work  from  ill-health,  and 
was  in  Washington ;  so  I  wrote  to  her," — here  Marion 
colored  a  little  at  the  recollection  of  the  subject  of  that 
first  letter, — "  remembering  her  as  the  most  sympa 
thetic  person  I  ever  knew." 

"It  was  a  kind  impulse  to  want  to  give  her  this 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  63 

glimpse  of  brightness  in  her  life.  I  can't  imagine  a 
more  wretched  breakdown  than  one  from  teaching." 

"  Oh,  but  I  don't  deserve  credit  for  pure  unselfish 
ness/'  said  Marion,  always  sensitively  truthful.  "  I 
wanted  her  for  myself.  I  wanted  guidance  in  certain 
paths.  I  have  not  explained  to  you  that  for  some 
time  past  she  has  been  a  public  lecturer  on  the  Wo 
man  Question,  and  has  appeared  on  many  platforms 
about  the  country.'' 

"  Good  gracious !  "  said  Gordon,  with  a  jump. 

"  Oh,  yes.  And  I  am  proud  of  her  courage,  and 
pluck,  and  talent.  I  think,  as  I  know  her  better 
every  day,  I  could  follow  anywhere  she  may  lead. 
And,  after  all,  it  is  to  you  I  owe  the  permission  to 
have  her  come.  My  father  told  me  that  you  advised 
it  in  the  first  place." 

"I — oh!  yes,  I  did,"  said  the  unfortunate  young 
man,  remembering  his  conversation  with  the  judge. 

"  But  you  did  not  know  I  was  going  to  capture 
such  a  ram  avis,  did  you  ?  It  is  a  great  pride  to  me 
to  show  you  such  a  champion  of  our  Cause,  one  so 
fine,  so  intelligent,  so  truly  a  woman  in  all  that  is 
best." 

"  Our  cause  ?  "  he  repeated  in  a  blundering  attempt 
at  an  undertone  that  sounded  like  a  groan. 

"  Don't  speak  so  loud ;  you  will  be  heard  in  the 
parquet,"  she  said  in  smiling  rebuke.  "Yes,  'our 
Cause';  for  I  am  quite  decided,  now.  I  mean  to 
work  for  them  with  all  my  might  and  means  when 
Sara  shall  have  decided  in  what  way  it  will  be  best." 

"  Your  father  1 "  said  Gordon,  helplessly. 

"  That  is,  of  course,  our  greatest  obstacle ;  though 


64  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

Sara  has  won  him  over,  in  a  way  most  surprising  to 
me,  to  let  her  explain  to  him  our  aims  and  objects." 

"Explain  to  Mm — "  began  Gordon,  again,  and 
stopped,  feeling  that  he  was  not  coming  through 
this  very  brilliantly. 

"  Really,  Alec,  I  never  knew  you  so  dull  in  taking 
an  idea.  Her  logic,  her  reasoning  faculties,  would 
command  any  man's  respect.  There,  the  curtain  is 
going  up." 

"  May  we  stay  a  while  longer  ?  "  he  said,  hating 
tremendously  to  leave  'her  alone  with  his  new  foe. 

"  Certainly.  We  are  deserted  females,  apparently. 
But  when  I  have  Sara  to  talk  with,  I  never  miss  any 
one  else." 

Gordon,  falling  again  into  the  chair  behind  hers, 
queried  no  more.  The  act  progressed.  Calve  had 
come  upon  the  scene ;  and  upon  her  the  attention 
of  the  great  audience  was  focalized. 

There  was  the  patio  of  the  little  fonderia  in  which 
Don  Jose  lounged  upon  the  edge  of  the  table,  while 
saucy  Carmen,  a  rose  dropping  from  her  dark  hair, 
her  glances  as  full  of  fire  as  were  her  motions  of  sin 
uous  grace,  swaggered  before  her  lover's  eyes,  or 
danced  and  sang  for  him  in  a  voice  as  rich  as  wine. 

But  of  this  Gordon  saw  nothing.  Perhaps,  under 
the  spell  of  that  lovely  voice,  the  captivating  sensu- 
ousness  of  Bizet's  music,  he  was  impelled  to  feel  for 
the  girl,  so  near  him  that  his  breath  stirred  the  loose 
tendrils  of  hair  upon  her  neck,  a  new  awakening  of 
the  tenderness  of  their  old  relation ;  and  then  a  vague 
alarm  for  her,  the  instinctive  idea  that  she  needed  his 
protection,  had  greatly  shaken  his  resolve  to  think  of 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  65 

her  only  as  a  sister.  Already,  in  the  short  time  since 
she  had  thrown  off  his  loving  yoke,  she  seemed  to 
have  not  only  receded  far  from  him,  but  to  be  quieter, 
more  content,  nay,  happier,  than  while  he  had  been 
pouring  out  on  her  the  best  passion  of  his  young 
manhood. 

When  the  toreador  came  on,  and  strutted  his  brief 
space  before  the  footlights,  and  sang  his  familiar, 
ringing  song,  Gordon  was  glad  of  the  burst  of  ap 
plause  that  followed  it.  He  started  from  his  reverie, 
uncertain  whether  he  had  uttered  an  actual  sound ; 
but  as  nobody  seemed  to  notice  him,  he  felt  relieved, 
assured  that  he  had  not. 

"  Oh,  my  love,  my  love,"  he  was  saying  within  him 
self,  "  you  did  not  kindle  such  a  fire  in  my  breast, 
you  did  not  feed  it  all  these  months  when  I  believed 
you  mine,  to  have  it  go  out  suddenly  at  your  bid 
ding." 

As  Escamillo  came  back  on  his  recall,  the  ante 
chamber  of  the  box  was  invaded  by  new  arrivals ;  and 
at  the  close  of  the  repeat,  Mrs.  Romaine  and  two 
others  came  to  the  front.  The  greetings  and  ex 
planations  that  ensued  effectually  broke  up  senti 
ment  ;  and,  pledging  himself  to  take  Stremof  to  call 
at  the  Irvings's  on  the  day  but  one  following,  Gordon 
and  his  friend  took  leave. 

In  the  lobby  he  encountered  no  less  a  person  than 
Mr.  Justice  Irving,  hovering  —  rather  uncertainly,  it 
appeared  to  Gordon  —  around  the  door  of  the  Ro- 
maines's  box. 

"I  saw  you  looking  after  Marion,  from  the  par 
quet,"  the  judge  explained  hastily.  "You  know  I 


66  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

never  will  spoil  an  evening  of  good  music  by  sitting 
where  people  gabble,  and  Mrs.  Romaine  is  notorious 
in  that  respect.  She  7s  just  gone  in,  I  see ;  so  that 
Marion  's  all  right.  There  's  no  call  for  me  to  show 
in  there,  I  suppose  ? " 

"  None,  if  it  bores  you,  I  should  think,"  said  Gor 
don,  introducing  Stremof. 

"  Then  I  'd  as  well  go  back  and  get  the  rest  of  this 
act  in  my  seat  below,"  said  his  Honor,  after  extending 
a  civil  greeting  to  the  stranger. 

"  May  I  see  you  on  Sunday  afternoon,  alone  1 "  said 
Gordon.  "I  am  promising  myself  the  pleasure  of 
introducing  Baron  Stremof  to  your  daughter  on  that 
occasion ;  and,  if  you  are  free,  I  will  try  for  a  talk  with 
you." 

"Of  course,  of  course,"  answered  the  judge. 

Then  he  hastened  off ;  and  Stremof  had  to  repeat  a 
remark  he  made  to  Gordon  before  it  was  heard,  so  in 
tent  was  the  young  man  in  looking  after  the  vanish 
ing  figure  of  his  sometime  father-in-law-elect. 

"You  are  in  a  brown  study,"  said  Stremof,  gaily. 
"  Let  me  thank  you  for  the  delightful  opportunity  you 
have  given  me  in  that  last  visit.  Now  that  we  have 
left  them,  I  see  that,  with  all  her  sparkle,  the  petite 
Madame  Stauffer  is  less  remarkable  than  the  young 
lady  in  her  charge.  One  could  readily  commit  folly  for 
a  Madame  Stauffer,  but  any  wise  man  would  choose  to 
live  for  Mademoiselle  Irving.  Why  does  not  one  of 
your  American  sculptors — your  great  St.  Gaudens, 
for  instance — see  in  her  the  new  Pallas  of  the  coming 
woman's  era  ?  " 

Gordon,  indisposed  to  talk  on  this  subject,  proposed 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  67 

another  call.  As  they  threaded  the  half-circle  of  the 
lobby,  various  men,  strolling  outside,  met  them,  and 
Stremof  was  quick  to  notice  the  tone  and  temper  of 
the  salutations  bestowed  on  Gordon. 

"  You  are  like  a  hero  returned,"  he  said.  "  Every 
one  welcomes  you,  and  looks  up  to  you.  Pray,  how 
long  have  you  been  out  of  town  ?  " 

"A  fortnight,"  Gordon  answered,  and  then  won 
dered  if  that  was  indeed  the  length  of  time  consumed 
by  his  journey.  So  much  had  happened  since  his  de 
parture,  he  felt  that  it  must  have  been  longer. 


IV 


RS.  ROMAINE,  who  had  never  been 
beautiful,  and  was  no  longer  young, 
brusquely  cordial  in  manner  to  those 
she  fancied,  abominably  rude  to  the 
people  she  chose  to  ignore,  had  a 
certain  attraction  of  individuality 
that  created  for  her  a  following  of  friends  indepen 
dent  of  her  place  and  wealth. 

Well-born,  married  to  a  prosperous  and  influential 
ruler  of  nuance,  she  liked  to  take  liberties  with  estab 
lished  things,  which,  when  pushed  too  far,  were  usu 
ally  atoned  for  by  some  entertainment  from  which 
society  went  away  persuaded  it  could  not  have  afforded 
to  stay  away. 

On  fairly  good  terms,  as  such  things  go,  with  her 
husband,  she  never  failed  to  do  herself  the  injustice  of 
referring  to  him  in  public  as  an  enemy  of  her  peace, 
against  whom  her  only  protection  was  a  series  of 
needle-pointed  sayings,  repeated  successively  as  "  Mrs. 
Remain  e's  last."  In  actual  fact,  John  Remain  e — a 
man  whose  ambition  it  was  to  accumulate  millions,  to 
be  panoplied  with  the  world's  adulation,  to  have  his 
schemes  and  ventures  discussed  in  the  newspapers 
with  the  admiration  for  success  that  tempers,  if  it 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  69 

cannot  subdue,  the  audacity  of  the  American  press  — 
had  come  to  care  very  little  for  what  his  wife  did  or 
said.  Prosperity  had  driven  them  asunder,  and  their 
lives  under  the  same  roof  were  lived  very  much  apart. 
Liberal  to  indulgence,  Romaine  enjoyed  the  dashing 
exhibition  of  his  riches  as  dispensed  by  her  hands. 
At  the  pace  they  were  going,  he  had  no  time  to  wish 
her  other  than  she  was.  He  had  no  time  either  to 
regret  the  loss  of  his  children  in  infancy,  to  wonder 
what  he  might  have  conferred  upon  posterity.  The 
present,  the  great  powerful  present,  rushing  over  steel 
rails  with  its  iron  wheels,  in  the  glare  of  electric  light, 
was  his,  and  he  exulted  in  his  ownership,  nor  asked 
for  more. 

Mrs.  Romaine,  who,  Marion  thought,  fancied  the  Ir- 
vings  principally  because  they  were  so  indifferent  to 
her,  now  spoke  to  Marion  in  her  usual  sleepy,  very- 
much-bored  voice. 

"  Glad  you  could  come,  I  'm  sure.  Is  n't  that  the 
judge  I  see  down  in  the  parquet  —  that  shocking 
man  who  never  fails  to  snub  me?  We  would 
have  been  here  earlier,  but  on  the  way  Reggy  Poole 
was  possessed  with  the  idea  of  stopping  to  hear 
Lizzie  Linwood  sing,  and  we  went  in  a  box,  just  for 
the  lark,  you  know.  But  she  bawled,  and  I  soon  got 
tired.  "Who  is  the  woman  you  Ve  got  with  you  to 
night  ?  "  she  ended,  looking  over  at  Sara,  and  hardly 
troubling  herself  to  subdue  her  voice. 

Marion  explained. 

"  That  alters  the  case,"  exclaimed  the  hostess,  with 
animation.  "  She  is  talking  to  Reggy  now,  so  in  case 
I  forget  to  mention  it  again,  bring  her  to  lunch  with 


70  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

me  to-morrow.  Her  subject,  after  socialism,  is  of  all 
others  the  one  that  interests  me  now ;  if  she 's  as  clever 
as  you  say,  why  should  n't  we  have  an  afternoon  lec 
ture  for  women,  and  let  her  'give  it'  to  the  men? 
Poor  creatures  !  I  have  a  pet  idea  to  promulgate,  and 
perhaps  I  '11  start  it,  then.  I  want  to  open  a  kinder 
garten  for  husbands,  who  are  nothing  but  children, 
morally,  as  we  all  know.  We  will  set  for  them  object 
lessons  in  consistency,  and  teach  them  how  not  to  get 
out  of  responsibility  crab-wise.  You  shall  be  a 
teacher,  your  friend  chief  lecturer,  and  Loulie  Kemp, 
there,  might  have  sense  enough  to  distribute  slates, 
and  amuse  the  very  little  husbands  who  won't  want 
to  be  taught.  (Never  mind !  She  don't  hear  me.) 
And  what  shall  we  do  with  Reggy  Poole?  I  can't 
leave  him  out,  can  I,  when  he  's  always  at  my  heels  ? 
Oh,  he  's  so  much  like  us,  we  'd  put  a  frock  on  him, 
and  they  'd  never  know  the  difference.  Now,  say 
you  '11  come  to-morrow,  my  dear.  I  'm  so  afraid  it 
will  go  out  of  my  head." 

To  the  invitation  thus  extended  Marion  had  very 
little  idea  of  paying  serious  heed.  But  when,  next 
day,  after  breakfast,  which  Sara  and  she  had  fallen 
into  the  habit  of  having  in  her  morning-room,  the 
matter  was  casually  mentioned,  she  found  her  guest 
of  another  opinion. 

"  That  woman  is  helter-skelter,  foolish,  strained, 
perhaps,"  Madame  Stauffer  said  reflectively;  "but 
she  is  at  present  with  us,  and  we  must  use  any 
weapon  we  can  lay  hands  upon." 

"  Do  you  think  so,  dear  ? "  Marion  asked  protest- 
ingly.  "  I  had  set  aside  to-day  to  send  for  some  girls 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  71 

I  am  sure  you  would  be  interested  in,  to  come  to 
lunch  with  us." 

"  And  who  are  they,  dear  child  ?  "  asked  Sara,  sip 
ping  with  satisfaction  her  cup  of  cafe  au  lait,  her  feet 
toasting  on  the  brass  fender  before  a  blazing  wood- 
fire. 

"  They  are  well-born  working-girls.  One  of  them 
addresses  envelopes  and  sends  out  cards  for  women  of 
society;  the  other  makes  lamp-shades,  and  reticules, 
and  cotillion  favors.  One  has  a  drunken  father  who 
oppresses  her ;  the  other  a  young  brother  she  is  put 
ting  through  college.  Both  have  been  successful,  and 
deserve  to  be.  They  are  refined,  intelligent,  cheerful, 
suggestive.  I  am  never  with  them  (they  are  friends, 
and  constantly  together)  without  coming  away  re 
freshed.  Then  there  is  a  journalist,  whose  life  is  a 
perfect  romance  —  I  meant  to  ask  her,  too,  on  the 
chance  of  getting  her ;  and  a  stenographer  whom  I 
know  you  would  enjoy.  These  are  the  recruits  I 
would  choose  for  our  army — not  faded,  whimsical 
women  of  fashion  like  Mrs.  Romaine." 

"  But  Mrs.  Romaine  has  great  wealth  and  power, 
you  tell  me.  We  need  means  for  everything,  begin 
ning  with  the  endowment  of  more  colleges." 

"  New  York  is  hardly  the  place  to  seek  for  that," 
said  Marion,  with  kindling  eyes.  "  Boston,  New 
Orleans,  and  other  places  were  before  us  in  offering 
to  women  advantages  in  education  approximating 
those  enjoyed  by  men ;  and  New  York,  the  metrop 
olis  in  point  of  population  and  wealth,  has  only  now 
begun  to  move  in  that  direction.  If  Mrs.  Romaine 
and  her  set  would  take  hold  of  that  idea,  and  make 


72  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

it  the  fashion,  it  might  be  different.  But  they 
won't ;  they  are  not  broad-minded  enough,  far-seeing 
enough;  they  do  not  altogether  fancy  dandling  a 
cause  which  their  men  turn  into  ridicule.  I  've  seen 
it  tried  with  them;  you  have  n't.  Believe  me,  by 
going  to  her  you  would  only  waste  time,  and  sacri 
fice  our  aims  as  a  toy  for  her  passing  amusement." 

"  But  I  think,  my  darling," —  and  Marion  had  a 
dim  sense  that  there  was  no  use  in  trying  to  contro 
vert  one  of  Sara's  "  buts," — "  you  must  be  content  to 
leave  some  things  to  my  judgment,  without  question 
ing  it.  I  know  that  among  us,  in  council,  we  have 
often  wished  for  opportunities  such  as  this  seems  to 
promise,  to  spread  the  doctrine;  and  I  cannot,  in 
conscience,  abandon  it." 

"  I  only  felt  that  a  few  words  from  you  would  mean 
so  much  to  these  earnest  girls  I  spoke  of,"  said 
Marion,  submissively. 

"  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  me  to  work  in  more  difficult 
channels,  once  in  a  while,"  answered  the  reformer, 
preparing  for  herself,  with  great  daintiness  of  touch, 
an  orange.  "For  so  long  my  efforts  have  been  di 
rected  to  showing  the  intelligent  proletariat  of  the 
country  the  enormous  mental,  moral,  and  material 
gain  that  will  come  to  them  from  woman's  univer 
sal  right  to  the  ballot,  it  is  time  I  should  handle  the 
class  that  is  smothered  in  the  eider-down  of  luxurious 
indifference." 

"  Mrs.  Romaine  says  she  is  a  socialist,"  said  Marion, 
with  a  smile  not  repressed  by  the  dignity  of  the  sub 
ject. 

"  Better  and  better ! "  exclaimed  Sara.     "At  last  I 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  73 

see  the  dawn  of  our  opportunity.  How  I  wish  I  could 
engage  Mr.  Gordon  to  let  me  explain  to  him  our  lead 
ing  arguments,  and  hear  some  of  his  objections.  Ah, 
my  dear  Marion,  there  is  a  man  worth  breaking  lances 
with." 

"  I  never  broke  any  with  him,"  answered  Marion, 
half  quizzically. 

"I  suppose  not.  He  was  a  lover,  out  and  out,  I 
don't  doubt ;  as  he  is  everything  he  sets  out  to  be  — 
I  am  sure." 

It  is  too  recent  for  me  to  talk  about,  even  to  you," 
said  Marion,  confused. 

"  Very  well,  I  shall  respect  your  feeling.  But  one 
thing,  Marion," — and  Madame  Stauffer  leaned  over, 
and  looked  scrutinizingly  into  her  friend's  face, — 
"  after  meeting  him  last  night,  you  are  quite  sure  you 
do  not  waver  ?  " 

"  I  shall  never  be  anything  to  him  again,  if  that  is 
what  you  mean,"  said  Marion.  "  Even  if  I  were  made 
of  the  weak  stuff  to  play  fast  and  loose  with  a  man's 
love,  he  is  not  the  one  to  put  up  with  it.  He  is  still 
my  friend — my  best  friend.  I  should  hate  to  pain 
him  by  carrying  out  any  scheme  the  Cause  laid  down 
for  me  that  he  did  not  approve  of.  But  I  should  do 
it,  nevertheless.  I  could  never  submit  to  the  control 
that,  as  a  husband,  I  felt  convinced  he  would  exercise 
over  me.  Every  now  and  then,  during  our  year's  en 
gagement,  I  used  to  come  upon  phases  of  his  character 
that  revealed  this  to  me.  My  father  says  one  secret 
of  Alec's  success  in  public  life  is  his  inborn  power  to 
rule  men.  His  fearlessness  of  speech  startles,  but 
carries  the  judgment  of  others  with  it;  his  belief  in 


74  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

himself  is  infectious;  his  integrity  is  absolute — and 
his  will  sweeps  over  obstacles  like  a  tidal  wave." 

To  this  Sara  made  a  response  that  caused  Marion  to 
look  at  her  in  considerable  surprise. 

"A-a-h ! "  said  the  little  woman,  throwing  her  head 
back,  half  closing  her  eyes,  and  relaxing  her  slender 
body  in  her  easy-chair.  "  If  one  dared  let  oneself  go, 
what  joy  to  be  swept  away  by  such  a  wave  !  "  Then, 
sitting  up  erect,  and  dipping  her  fingers  into  her 
finger-bowl,  she  flicked  the  water  from  them  into  the 
air.  "  You  look  at  me  as  though  I  were  a  mad  wo 
man,  Marion.  Perhaps  I  am,  dear  child;  but,  the 
truth  is,  when  one  has  gone  through  my  experience 
of  battering  around  the  world,  there  are  moments  of 
temptation  to  shut  the  eyes,  and  let  somebody  else 
fight  one's  battles  —  moments  that  come  like  the 
whispers  of  Apollyon  to  deter  Christiana  from  fol 
lowing  the  right  road.  That 's  wretched  femininity, 
I  suppose  —  the  weaker  part  we  are  all  trying  to  live 
down.  No  matter !  It 's  gone  as  it  came.  Such  an 
indulgence  makes  me  a  traitor  to  my  Cause.  Give 
me  my  casque  and  doublet,  Marion,  and  help  me  to 
buckle  them  in  place." 

Just  then  there  was  heard  a  tap  on  the  door  of  the 
morning-room  —  a  timid  tap,  a  deprecating  summons. 

"  Come  in,"  said  Marion. 

The  door  opened,  and  upon  its  threshold  appeared 
the  judge,  in  his  top-coat,  holding  his  hat  in  his 
hand. 

"  Marion,  my  dear, —  good  morning,  Madame  Stauf- 
fer," — he  began,  looking  from  his  daughter  to  her 
guest,  as  if  he  had  casually  become  aware  of  the 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  75 

existence  of  that  lady  —  "I  thought  I  would  mention 
that  I  am  engaged  this  evening  at  a  meeting  of  our 
dining-club,  from  which  I  cannot  very  well  get  off, 
and  it  would  probably  be  too  late  upon  my  return  to 
hope  for  Madame  Stauffer's  assistance  with  my  new 
catalogue  of  the  French  and  Italian  books  in  my  col 
lection.  But  if  on  Monday  evening  it  would  not 
trouble  Madame  Stauffer  to  resume  her  important 
cooperation  —  " 

"  You  are  too  kind,  dear  Judge  Irving,"  said  Sara, 
"  but  Marion  knows  that  is  the  day  fixed  for  my  re 
turn  to  Washington." 

The  words  were  commonplace,  but  the  sigh  that 
escaped  with  them  was  pregnant  with  pathetic  mean 
ing. 

"  Monday  ?  Impossible ! "  said  the  judge,  with  a  re 
turn  of  his  imperative  manner.  "  That  is," — he  went 
on,  as  before, —  "  I  don't  know,  of  course,  the  engage 
ments  made  for  your  valuable  time,  but  I  cannot  sup 
pose  Marion  has  allowed  you  to  feel  that  your  visit  to 
her  has  lasted  long  enough.  As  for  me,  I  can  only 
say  that  as  long  as  you  are  willing  to  confer  your  — 
—  er  —  inestimable  companionship  upon  my  daugh 
ter,  I  shall  —  er  —  consider  myself  your  debtor." 

"There,  Sara!"  said  Marion,  exultingly.  "I  told 
you  papa  feels  as  I  do.  We  won't  hear  of  your 
leaving  us  till  after  Christmas." 

"What  can  I  do  but  say  yes,  and  thank  you  a 
thousand  times?"  cried  Sara,  dropping  her  eyes  be 
fore  those  of  the  judge,  while  holding  Marion's  hand 
in  her  own.  "  This  dear  child,  Judge  Irving,  is  my 
sister  of  the  heart ;  and  you  have  made  me  so  happy 


76  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

in  feeling  that  I  can  be  of  some  little,  little  use  to 
you  in  your  arduous  brain  labors." 

The  judge's  ear  was  tickled  by  the  phrase.  He 
loved  to  think  of  himself  as  a  victim  to  over-exer 
cise  of  the  mental  faculties. 

"It  is — er — an  immense  gain  to  my  work  to  have 
from  you  such  intelligent  apprehension  of  its  scope," 
he  said,  in  rotund  speech. 

"And  we  are  going  on,  also,  with  my  attempt  to 
make  you  understand  the  real  force  and  meaning 
of  the  mission  I  am,  however  unworthily,  trying  to 
sustain  ?  " 

"Far  be  it  from  me,"  quoth  the  judge,  "to  wish  to 
raise  a  hand  toward  tearing  down  the  veil  of  reticence 
with  which  every  shrinking  woman  should  surround 
her  life  before  the  public.  But  I  concede  what  you 
have  said  as  to  what  they  can  accomplish  in  school 
elections.  More,  I  am  hardly  yet  prepared  to  grant." 

This  concession,  accorded  with  Jove-like  dignity, 
fell  upon  Marion's  ears  with  startling  effect. 

"  Ah !  but  if  you  will  only  have  patience  with  me," 
said  Sara,  in  her  winning  voice,  "  I  shall  not  undertake 
to  alter  your  opinions — ah,  no!  That  would  be  far 
too  much  to  aim  for,  too  high  an  achievement  in  my 
life.  But  I  will  dare  to  hope  you  may  end  by  think 
ing  that  justice  and  honor  might  do  worse  things  than 
place  in  our  hands  the  privilege  of  the  ballot." 

"  We  shall  see ;  we  shall  see,"  said  his  honor,  with  an 
attempt  at  amiability  having  rather  the  effect  of  a 
grunt.  But,  as  he  bade  them  good  morning  and  went 
off  to  court,  Marion  thought  she  had  rarely  seen  her 
father  wear  such  an  animated  expression  of  youth  and 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  77 

interest  in  current  things.  With  a  sigh,  she  said  to 
herself,  "  It  is  his  manner  of  society,  of  course,  that 
makes  all  women  tell  me  what  a  delightful  man  he  is." 
When  he  had  gone,  she  dared  not  speak  of  this  to 
Sara,  lest  that  clever  person  should  see  farther  be 
hind  the  veil  than  Marion  intended  her  to  penetrate. 
Why  should  his  own  child  expose  his  weakness? 
And  Sara,  equally  discreet,  said  nothing  on  her  side. 

MRS.  ROMAINE,  doing  the  honors  of  her  stately  din 
ing-room  with  careless  grace,  rather  "  laid  herself 
out,"  thought  Marion,  to  be  civil  and  gracious  to 
Madame  Stauffer.  The  other  guests  at  luncheon 
were  Stremof,  who  at  the  moment  of  introduction  the 
night  before  had  been  bidden  by  the  hostess  to  come 
next  day  and  make  her  better  acquaintance;  Miss 
Kemp,  a  colorless  young  woman  serving  to  fill  the 
vacant  place  in  most  of  Mrs.  Romaine's  incomplete 
functions  of  life  and  society ;  and  a  pale,  wild-eyed 
man  dressed  in  threadbare  clothes,  who  was  intro 
duced  as  "  Herr  Hofman,  from  Basel,  a  distinguished 
socialist,"  employed  to  come  three  times  a  Aveek  to 
"coach"  Mrs.  Romaine  in  the  doctrines  of  his  creed. 

"  Oh !  you  may  smile,"  said  the  lady  of  the  house 
to  Stremof,  who  had  treated  himself  to  a  small  in 
dulgence  of  the  nature  designated,  "but  until  I  had 
Hofman's  talks,  life  was  quite  empty.  I  am  so  en 
thusiastic  about  it  I  mean  to  become  a  member  of 
the  American  Branch  of  the  League,  shortly.  Until 
then  I  must  be  content  to  give  money — " 

"  They  also  must  be  content,  madame,"  said  Stremof. 

"And  to  talk  to  any  one  I  meet  whom  I  think  I 


78  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

can  influence.  When  I  drive  about  to  pay  bills  to 
my  tradespeople,  I  cast  a  seed  here  and  there.  I 
have  great  hopes  for  an  intelligent  young  plumber 
who  has  lately  been  at  work  in  the  house ;  and  " — 
lowering  her  voice — "my  butler  and  footmen  are 
hotfoot  after  the  new  doctrine." 

"  And  so,  when  the  day  comes  that  is  foretold  by 
Henry  George,"  said  Stremof,  "which  some  one  of 
the  Scotch  writers  has  described  as  a  'huge  wedge 
driven  through  the  middle  of  society,  and  on  the  un 
derside  of  it  the  merchant  princes  eating  the  bread 
of  poverty  with  their  lowest  dependents/  you  are  pre 
pared  to  share  all  your  present  privileges  ?  " 

"There  are  some  of  my  privileges  I  would  not 
only  share,  but  give  away  with  rapture,"  she  said  — 
"the  privilege  of  being  bored  to  extinction  by  half 
my  acquaintances,  for  example.  But  we  are  not  here 
to  talk  about  my  '  mania/  as  my  husband  pleasantly 
calls  it.  Madame  Stauffer  must  tell  us  of  her  mis 
sion,  that  I  think  should  march  hand  in  hand  with 
mine  to  the  dawn  of  the  New  Day;  and  then  Hen* 
Hofman  may  be  induced  to  follow." 

"Not  at  table,  if  you  don't  mind,"  said  Sara  in  a 
low,  distinct  voice.  In  her  heart  she  resented  the 
airy  impertinence  of  Mrs.  Romaine's  mocking  man 
ner,  the  fact  that  she  had  been  brought  there  to 
make  entertainment,  and  was  classed  with  the  long 
haired  man  with  a  dingy  shirt-collar. 

"Has  temper,"  decided  Mrs.  Romaine,  internally; 
then,  turning  away,  she  devoted  herself  to  Stremof, 
leaving  the  others  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

"For  once,"  thought  Marion,  "one  of  her  'mena- 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  79 

gerie  luncheons/  as  she  styles  them,  is  a  distinct 
failure." 

And  so  it  proved.  The  affair  languished,  until 
even  Stremof,  who  had  been  making  stupendous  ef 
forts  to  support  the  occasion,  ceased  to  struggle,  and 
went  under. 

"  Goodness,  how  dull  we  are ! "  said  the  hostess,  at 
last  aware  of  the  fact.  "  Let  us  go  into  the  library, 
and  smoke ;  and  perhaps  that  will  enliven  us."  And, 
rising  abruptly,  she  led  the  way  into  a  room  where  no 
vacancies  appeared  to  mark  the  recent  withdrawal 
from  it  of  Mr.  Romaine's  treasures  of  books,  now  dis 
persed. 

"My  husband  is  bearing  up  under  it  as  well  as  can 
be  expected,  thank  you,"  she  answered  to  Marion's 
inquiry  as  to  how  Mr.  Romaine  bore  his  loss  of  the 
famous  library.  "  If  there  were  a  place  to  dispose  of 
wives  added  to  one's  collection  at  vast  expense,  I  sup 
pose  it  would  be  my  turn  to  go  next.  You  know  my 
husband  does  not  illustrate  —  what  Marx  says,  Herr 
Hofman  —  that  'the  value  of  a  commodity  changes 
directly  as  the  quantity,  and  inversely  as  the  produc 
tive  power,  of  the  labor  which  realizes  itself  in  that 
commodity.' " 

"Ah,  yes,"  rejoined  her  adviser,  with  entire  solem 
nity  ;  "  you  mean  where  he  also  says  '  value  is  an  im 
manent  relation  to  socially  necessary  time  of  labor.'  " 

"  This  is  not  gay,"  remarked  Stremof,  sotto  voce  to 
Madame  Stauffer.  "Why  should  this  lady,  into 
whose  cradle  the  good  fairies  seem  to  have  poured 
all  the  gifts,  be  so  sharp,  so  little  restful !  What  a 
contrast  to  the  old  times  when  it  was  the  chaplain  or 


80  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

father  confessor  who  made  part  of  the  domestic  staff 
of  the  woman  of  place  and  fortune !  Now  she  must 
have  her  spiritual  director  in  socialism,  mon  Dieu  !  Is 
it  so  everywhere?  Must  I  be  ready  on  all  sides  to 
talk  of  new  doctrines,  new  ideas,  casting  behind  me 
the  gossip,  the  pleasant  nonsense,  that  is  really  the 
high  art  of  conversation?  But,  no,  I  will  not  ask  that 
of  you,  madame,  since  last  night,  when  you  gave  me 
a  glimpse,  all  too  short,  of  your  own  brilliant  powers. 
Tell  me  —  and  if  I  am  indiscreet,  silence  me  —  about 
that  beautiful  sphinx  who  is  in  your  charge  —  Miss 
Irving.  She  interests  me.  She  perplexes  me.  Since 
last  night,  when  we  parted,  I  have  been  trying  to 
solve  her ;  but  I  do  not  succeed.  Is  she  happy  ?  Is 
she  sad!  What  is  the  secret  of  that  noble  expres 
sion  of  infinite  patience  upon  her  broad  brow?  You 
smile  —  ah!  I  am  always  losing  myself  in  my  en 
thusiasms.  But,  I  swear  to  you,  for  hours  I  have 
thought  of  hardly  anything  but  that  girl,  and  have 
dreamed  of  meeting  her  again.  At  table,  to-day,  she 
surprised  two  or  three  looks  from  me  that  I  could  see 
she  did  not  fancy,  and  so  I  looked  no  more." 

In  a  few  words  Sara  told  him  the  outline  of  Marion's 
history,  of  her  engagement  to  Gordon,  and  its  ending. 

"  So  !  "  said  the  young  man.  "  And  there  is  abso 
lutely  no  chance  that  she  will  take  Gordon  back?" 

"  None,"  said  Sara. 

They  were  sitting  apart  in  an  alcove  by  a  rack  con 
taining  an  open  portfolio  of  etchings  at  which  neither 
looked.  Stre"mof  was  struck  with  a  certain  expression 
passing,  like  the  shadow  from  a  bird's  wing,  over  the 
speaker's  face. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  81 

"  Besides,"  she  added,  "  Mr.  Gordon  is  a  man  on 
the  quick  rise  to  power,  to  political  fame.  The  world 
will  soon  afford  him  all  the  balm  his  spirit  needs." 

"  He  will  be  here  presently,"  said  Stremof,  looking 
covertly  at  his  watch.  "  We  have  an  engagement  to 
spend  the  afternoon  together,  to  see  some  clubs  and 
galleries,  I  believe ;  and  he  was  not  able  to  give  the 
time  to  Mrs.  Romaine  for  luncheon." 

Simultaneously,  a  servant  preceded  into  the  room 
the  subject  of  their  conversation,  on  whose  appear 
ance  Mrs.  Romaine  fairly  clapped  her  hands. 

"Now  that  you  are  come,  we  shall  cease  being  at 
odds  with  one  another,"  she  exclaimed.  "Here  we 
are,  a  group  of  people,  all  clever  and  original  —  ex 
cept  Loulie  Kemp  and  myself,  who  want  to  be  made 
so.  What  better  opportunity  for  something  I  have 
long  desired — to  hear  Gordon's  views  on  the  Wo 
man  Question  ?  And,  to  lead  the  way  to  it, —  for  no 
one  believes  more  in  fair  play  than  I  do, —  will  not 
Madame  Stauffer  open  with  just  a  resume,  so  that  all 
can  understand  our  platform  about  the  ballot,  which 
is,  after  all,  the  main  object  of  our  hopes  ?" 

At  an  ordinary  time,  no  proposition  could  well  have 
been  more  distasteful  to  Gordon.  But  he  had  parted 
from  Marion,  overnight,  in  a  sort  of  blank  terror  as 
he  thought  of  the  gulf  toward  which,  in  his  eyes,  she 
was  drifting.  He  knew  she  would  never  personally 
demand  from  him  an  expression  of  his  views  on  the 
subject  given.  And  he  wanted  to  feel  that,  whether 
she  recognized  it  or  not,  his  hand  had  been  stretched 
out  to  withhold  her. 

Sara  Stauffer,  on  her  side,  was,  as  has  been  seen, 


82  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

vexed  and  out  of  spirits.  But,  on  Gordon's  arrival, 
her  pulses  had  begun  to  stir  with  pleasure  of  the 
most  agitating  and  least  welcome  variety.  It  was, 
indeed,  a  protest  against  her  own  infirmity  of  spirit 
that  spurred  her  on  to  enter  the  arena  against  the 
young  man  who  had  so  affected  her.  With  eyes  cast 
down,  with  the  hesitancy  of  a  child,  she  began  an  ex 
position  of  certain  arguments  so  well  known  of  late 
it  were  useless  to  rehearse  them  here.  She  gave  a 
brief  history  of  the  "  disfranchised "  classes  of  hu 
manity,  beginning  with  those  in  England,  then  pass 
ing  to  the  negro,  and  finally  to  the  women  of  the 
States.  The  question  of  equal  wages  for  equal  labor 
was  next  touched  upon,  Madame  Stauffer  making  the 
point  that,  until  the  power  of  the  ballot  shall  be  ac 
corded  to  women,  this  equality  cannot  exist,  and  that 
the  first  result  of  woman's  "  enfranchisement "  will 
be  the  opportunity  to  receive  pay  commensurate  to 
the  value  of  her  work. 

She  spoke  simply,  with  an  admirable  choice  of  words, 
with  trained  ease  and  rhetorical  method,  with  convinc 
ing  earnestness.  The  predominant  feeling  of  her  lit 
tle  audience,  when  she  had  finished,  was  one  of  respect 
for  the  cause  and  the  worker.  Marion's  heart  swelled 
with  pride  in  her  champion ;  and,  stretching  out  her 
hand  to  Sara,  the  two  sat  thus,  while  Gordon  rubbed 
up  his  wits  for  an  answer. 

"  It  is  quite  needless  to  tell  you  that  I  am  tremen 
dously  at  a  disadvantage  in  this  fray,"  he  said 
pleasantly. 

"Madame  Stauffer  has  brought  the  grace  of  her 
oratory  to  the  support  of  her,  evidently,  long-con- 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  83 

sidered  conviction.  She  has,  of  course,  the  sympathy  ^ 
and  deserves  the  applause,  of  her  audience. 

"I  cannot,  however,  share  her  views  on  this  subject; 
and  —  though  I  have  never  attempted  a  discussion  of 
this  kind,  or  any  formal  discussion  in  such  presence, 
and  must  throw  myself  upon  your  considerate  indul 
gence  in  entering  at  all  upon  a  disputation  before 
you,  now,  and  so  unexpectedly  —  I  venture,  in  the 
rough,  upon  some  of  the  ideas  that  occurred  to  me 
while  Madame  Stauffer  was  speaking. 

"When  the  ' women's  rights'  insisted  on  by  our 
agitators  of  the  last  generation  related  to  questions 
of  married  women's  property  rights ;  or  to  the  ameli 
oration  of  the  condition  of  women,  to  be  afforded  by 
laws  more  liberal  in  the  matter  of  divorce ;  or  to  the 
authority  a  woman  should  have  over  her  children  — 
the  right  feeling  and  the  good  sense  of  the  community 
were  every  year  more  and  more  with  the  champions 
of  the  sex.  But  in  matters  of  divorce,  any  woman  in 
this  country  can  now  be  readily  relieved  of  the  yoke 
of  a  conjugal  relation  which  ought  to  be  dissolved 
for  any  substantial  reason;  the  law  among  us  is 
everywhere  rather  too  lax  than  too  stringent  in  that 
regard.  Women  have  now  been  constituted  by  our 
legislature  joint  guardians  with  their  husbands  of 
their  children  —  with  equal  powers,  rights,  and  du 
ties,  in  regard  to  their  children,  with  their  husbands ; 
though  I  think  experience  will  show  that  to  be  a 
measure  open  to  the  objection  I  shall  presently  make 
to  female  suffrage — that  it  tends  to  prevent  a  proper 
headship  in  the  family.  In  the  State  of  New  York, 
too,  the  rights  of  a  married  woman  to  her  earnings 


84  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

and  in  her  property  of  every  kind,  acquired  whether 
before  or  after  marriage,  are  now  securely  established. 
Our  statutes  make  her  control  of  her  real  estate,  for 
instance,  more  complete  than  a  married  man's  do 
minion  in  lands  held  by  him ;  in  his  lands  she  still 
has  her  right  of  dower.  And  in  the  other  States  of 
the  Union  those  conditions  have  already  been  reached, 
or  soon  will  be. 

"  The  history  of  the  growth  and  development  of 
that  legislation  about  the  property  of  married  women 
is,  by  the  way,  very  interesting  for  this  among  other 
reasons.  Our  statutes  on  those  subjects  have  revo 
lutionized  the  law  among  English-speaking  peoples 
everywhere.  The  first  of  them,  in  the  States  which 
began  with  the  common  law  of  England,  was  en 
acted  in  Mississippi  in  1839.  It  was  crude,  but  was 
amended  and  broadened  in  1846,  while  the  first  of  the 
New  York  statutes  was  not  adopted  until  1848;  in 
fact,  the  Mississippi  Act  of  1839  was  passed  for  spe 
cial  application  to  a  particular  case  —  was  promoted 
by  a  bankrupt  suitor  of  a  prudent  and  well-advised 
woman,  who  had  great  expectations  of  estates  she 
was  unwilling  to  expose  to  claims  by  the  creditors  of 
an  insolvent  husband.  To  relieve  the  situation,  the 
aspirant  for  the  lady's  hand  had  the  bill  put  through 
the  legislature,  avowedly  to  introduce,  not  the  rule  of 
the  civil  law  of  Louisiana,  which  is  enlightened  in 
such  particulars,  but  the  tribal  customs  of  the  Chiek- 
asaw  Indians,  who  were  still  numerous  in  the  neigh 
borhood  !  The  squaw,  as  you  may  know,  is  the  head 
of  the  family ;  the  chief  traces  his  descent,  not  from 
his  father,  but  through  his  mother. 


A   BACHELOR  MAID  85 

"  But  when  the  question  of  '  women's  rights '  has 
come  to  relate  only  to  a  demand  that  woman  be  al 
lowed  to  vote  at  public  elections,  and  upon  questions 
affecting  government  and  the  State,  it  is  a  very  dif 
ferent  kind  of  thing,  and  seems  to  me  to  be  but  a 
symptom  of  the  general  drift  of  the  age  we  live  in, 
through  socialism  to  anarchy." 

At  this  point  of  Gordon's  remarks  Herr  Hofman 
threw  up  his  hands,  with  a  resigned  gesture,  toward 
Mrs.  Romaine,  as  who  should  say,  "You  see!  As 
ever,  we  are  misunderstood";  and  Mrs.  Romaiue 
smiled  back  at  him,  consolingly. 

"  There  never  was,  and  never  will  be,  government 
by  all  the  people,"  went  on  the  speaker.  "Every  form 
of  government  is  necessarily  more  or  less  by  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people.  No  system  of  government 
is  or  can  be  conducted  by  all  the  people  by  direct 
participation.  Infants,  for  example,  of  either  sex, 
are,  like  women,  citizens  —  equally  with  men.  But 
no  one  has  ever  proposed  that  infants  be  given  the 
ballot  to  take  part  in  actual  administration  of  public 
affairs  of  the  commonwealth.  The  line  must  be 
drawn  somewhere  between  those  who  may  exercise  in 
person,  and  at  the  polls,  the  authority  of  a  choice  in 
prescribing  the  policies  and  designating  the  officers 
of  government,  and  those  who  may  not.  The  suf 
frage  is  not  a  natural  right,  like  the  right  to  life  itself, 
but  a  privilege  accorded  by  society  to  those  members 
of  the  body  politic  who  are  thought  likely  so  to  exer 
cise  that  privilege  as  to  advance  the  general  welfare 
in  doing  it — a  privilege  conferred,  not  for  the  special 
benefit  of  the  individual  to  whom  it  is  given,  or  in 

6* 


86  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

the  interest  of  the  class  merely  to  which  that  indi 
vidual  belongs,  but  for  the  advantage  of  the  Republic 
itself.  When  that  franchise  was  allowed  to  the  re 
cently  emancipated  negroes  of  the  South,  for  instance, 
so  hazardous  an  experiment  was  justified,  not  as  a 
present  to  the  black  for  his  own  sake  merely,  but  as 
an  expedient,  intended  to  be  a  means  in  his  hands  for 
usefulness  to  us  all.  For  the  good  and  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  whole  country,  it  was  considered 
wise  to  intrust  to  those  who  had  been  slaves  a  wea 
pon  of  protection  against  the  possible  oppression  of  so 
numerous  a  class,  left  otherwise  very  much  at  the 
mercy  of  a  reckless  or  resentful  body  of  their  former 
owners,  who,  unless  held  in  check  by  the  ballot,  which 
could  choose  legislatures  and  executive  officers  of 
government,  might  indulge  in  practices  destructive 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  nation, —  of  the  residents 
in  New  England  as  well  as  of  residents  in  Carolina, — 
practices  inviting  to  civil  strife,  violence,  and  insur 
rection,  as  well  as  to  other  occasions  for  a  general 
disturbance  of  the  well-being  of  society.  And  we 
cannot  even  deal,  in  this  matter,  with  women  as  a 
class  by  themselves  $  they  have,  and  can  have,  no  in 
terests,  as  women  and  as  a  class,  conflicting  with,  or 
different  from,  the  interests  of  their  husbands,  fathers, 
brothers,  and  sons,  as  men  and  as  another  class. 
There  are  classes  among  women,  as  there  are  classes 
among  men :  but  surely  men  and  women  are  toge 
ther  and  united  in  every  interest  which  concerns  the 
welfare  of  the  community  as  a  whole. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  not  true  that  by  withholding  from 
women  the  authority  to  vote  in  person  they  are  de- 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  87 

prived  of  a  right,  or  denied  their  proper  influence  in 
administration  —  any  more  than  it  can  be  said  that 
because,  not  being  a  senator  or  a  representative  in 
the  Congress,  I  myself  am  not  allowed  to  vote  upon 
the  passage  of  bills  pending  at  Washington,  I  am  de 
prived  of  a  right  to  a  voice  in  government.  Though 
I  never  vote  in  person,  in  the  House  or  in  the  Senate, 
I  do  vote  there,  every  day,  by  my  representative. 

"  The  unit  of  the  social  state,  to  be  considered  in 
such  a  matter  as  this,  is  not  the  individual,  but  the 
family;  and  things  that  tend  to  develop  and  main 
tain  well-ordered  and  harmonious  families  should  be 
the  first  care  of  the  Republic.  Women,  at  every 
election,"  vote  by  their  representatives  who,  in  any 
properly  constituted  domestic  relation,  feel,  and  re 
spond  to,  and  act  under,  the  due  influence  of  their 
womenkind  in  everything  the  latter  are  interested  in." 

"Pardon  me,  but  is  n't  that  more  Utopian  than 
Herr  Hofman's  vision  of  a  new  world  under  social 
ism?"  said  Mrs.  Romaine,  in  her  provoking  little 
drawl.  "  But  pray  go  on,  Mr.  Gordon.  I  am  so  glad 
to  know  that  John  Romaine  is  always  thinking  of 
me,  at  the  polls." 

"I  have  just  reached  the  special  point  I  desired  to 
make,"  Gordon  resumed,  with  a  smile.  "In  every 
government,  whether  of  the  State  or  of  the  house 
hold,  there  must  be  one  head,  or  there  will  always  be 
confusion.  There  are  many  individuals  who  now  en 
joy  and  exercise  the  electoral  franchise  whose  par 
ticipation  in  government  could  be  dispensed  with,  to 
the  advantage  of  the  country.  There  are  cases  where 
the  wife  is  the  real  head  of  the  household,  and  where 


88  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

it  would  be  better  if  the  law  recognized  and  dealt 
with  her  as  such,  and  allowed  her  to  exercise  all  the 
power  of  such  a  situation.  But  laws  are  rules  of 
conduct  provided,  not  for  exceptional  cases,  but  for 
all ;  and,  constituted  as  human  nature  is,  society,  the 
world  over  and  in  all  ages  since  we  emerged  from 
savagery,  has  found  that,  as  a  rule,  the  man  must  be 
the  head  of  the  family.  With  understanding  between 
them,  the  wife  has  a  fit  representative  in  her  husband 
in  the  matter  of  voting.  And  where  they  differ  so 
strongly  as  to  make  it  useful  to  her  as  an  individual, 
perhaps,  to  have  her  destroy  his  vote  by  voting 
against  him,  it  is,  in  another  and  more  serious  as 
pect,  and  as  a  rule,  a  source  of  danger  to  the  com 
munity  to  allow  her  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  It 
would  foment  discord  in  every  household  where  the 
husband  and  wife  disagree,  to  confer  upon  woman 
the  right  to  vote ;  all  domestic  headship  and  author 
ity  would  be  subverted.  And  when  there  is  no  longer 
a  government  in  the  households — the  homes — of  the 
land,  there  may  soon  be  a  subversion  of  all  govern 
ment;  and  anarchy  will  then  have  come." 

When  Gordon  stopped  speaking,  he  did  not  ven 
ture  to  look  directly  at  Marion.  He  felt  rather  than 
saw  her  exchange  glances  with  Sara  Stauffer,  who, 
with  great  tact,  good-humor,  and  cleverness  set  her 
self  to  refute  his  argument. 

Whether  she  did  so  to  her  own  satisfaction,  she 
was  greatly  applauded;  and  the  hall-clock,  striking 
four,  broke  up  a  sitting  prolonged  beyond  expecta 
tion  of  any  of  them. 

"  How  admirably  she  speaks !     How  well  she  has 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  89 

herself  in  hand ! "  Stremof  remarked  to  Mrs.  Ro- 
maiue,  as  he  was  taking  leave. 

"I  belong  to  a  club  of  women,"  said  the  hostess, 
"who  meet  from  time  to  time  to  discuss  current 
topics  of  thought ;  and  I  assure  you  that,  among 
them,  Madame  Stauffer  would  be  only  incidental,  not 
phenomenal." 

"  Is  Mademoiselle  Irving  among  them  ? "  asked  the 
Russian,  whose  eyes  had  been  wandering  more  than 
was  good  for  him  to  the  tall  girl  in  the  black  serge 
costume,  sitting  in  such  immovable  earnestness 
through  it  all. 

"  She  ?  Oh,  no.  We  are  not  quite  intense  enough 
for  her."  Because  I  give  dinners,  and  go  to  balls, — 
and  spar  with  my  husband,  religiously, —  Miss  Irving- 
thinks  I  have  no  place  in  serious  thought.  Good-by! 
So  glad  you  were  not  bored  by  our  impromptu  duel. 
Sunday  afternoons,  remember!  And  you  will  let 
me  send  you  a  ticket  for  my  box  at  the  opera  on 
Wednesday  ? " 

"  DID  you  tell  me  you  had  never  met  this  Madame 
Stauffer  until  last  evening,  when  I  did?"  Stremof 
asked  Gordon,  as  the  two  men  got  into  their  hansom 
at  the  door. 

"Never." 

"  And  may  I  venture  to  ask  whether  you  did  not, 
until  then,  know  of  her  relation  to  Miss  Irving?" 

"  They  were  friends  in  Miss  Irving's  college-days, 
but  they  have  not  met  in  years." 

"  Well,  my  dear  friend,  if  you  will  permit  me,  I 
must  felicitate  you  upon  a  conquest,"  said  Stremof, 


90  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

gaily.  "  The  little  lady  asks  nothing  better  than  to 
test,  through  you,  the  practical  value  of  a  head  to 
her  household." 

"Absurd!"  said  Gordon.  "Don't  make  me  feel 
any  more  of  an  ass  than  I  already  do,  after  holding 
forth  seriously  on  that  theme  in  a  drawing-room." 

"  But  you  did  not  convince  Miss  Irving,"  went  on 
the  audacious  fellow.  "Her  face,  as  I  watched  it, 
was  cold;  her  eye  shone  clear  as  polished  steel." 

tl  This  club  where  we  shall  next  stop  — "  began 
Gordon  in  a  manner  that  admitted  of  no  further 
trifling ;  and  on  he  went,  to  fulfil  his  duty  of  cicerone, 
with  a  description  that  was  cut  short  only  by  the 
stopping  of  the  cab. 


GOOD  Briton,  says  Henley,  must 
wear  his  heart  in  his  breeches-pocket, 
or  anywhere  but  on  his  sleeve.  Alec 
Gordon,  a  good  American,  did  not 
consign  to  his  breeches-pocket  the 
heart  so  unceremoniously  returned 
to  him  by  the  girl  he  loved,  although  he  certainly  did 
not  wear  it  upon  his  sleeve.  He  put  it,  rather,  into 
an  office  envelop  stamped  with  the  firm's  name,  tied 
it  with  legal  tape,  and  consigned  it  to  a  pigeon-hole 
of  his  desk.  There  was  work  in  plenty,  and  of  a 
congenial  sort,  ahead  of  him,  without  forever  playing 
the  lorn  lover.  When  he  awoke  on  a  bright,  crisp 
Sunday  morning,  the  day  following  his  meeting  with 
Marion  at  Mrs.  Romanic's  luncheon,  and  went  to  his 
window  to  fill  his  lungs  with  invigorating  air,  he  felt 
that  delight  in  living,  that  renewal  of  mind  and  body 
after  healthy  sleep,  which  is  nearest  akin  to  being 
born  again  in  the  flesh. 

A  church-bell,  sounding  near,  did  not  act  upon  him 
like  a  prick  of  conscience,  as  it  does  upon  older  people 
who  have  nearly  lived  their  span.  He  liked  its  re 
minder  of  peace  and  order  in  the  calm  of  the  usually 

91 


92  A  BACHELOR   MAID 

noisy  streets,  as  he  did  the  Puritan  denmreness  of 
many  of  the  groups  trooping  churchward,  and  the 
quiet  space  to  think  and  be  glad  in  his  youth  and 
strength.  Through  his  veins  ran  an  exulting  sense 
that  the  world  outside  his  narrow  chamber  was  his 
heritage,  where  there  was  nothing  seriously  awry  in 
which  he  might  not  take  a  hand  for  bettering  it. 

But  while,  in  bright  day,  the  image  of  his  lost  love 
may  not  have  glowed  as  effectively  as  in  the  mystery 
of  night,  when  others  around  it  had  faded,  his  loy 
alty  to  her  and  to  her  father  remained  undiminished. 
He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  new  inmate  of  their 
home.  The  hold  Sara  Stauffer  had  evidently  ac 
quired  there  made  him  vaguely  uncomfortable.  That 
afternoon  he  should  make  it  his  business  to  warn  the 
judge  in  plain  words  that  his  daughter's  friend  was 
an  unsafe  guide  for  a  girl  full  of  opinions,  like  ten 
drils  swaying  in  the  wind,  seeking  a  support  to  cling 
to.  Disagreeable  as  this  task  might  be,  it  was  ren 
dered  doubly  obligatory  upon  him  by  the  fact  that 
from  him  had  originally  come  the  urgent  request 
that  a  companion  to  Marion's  solitude  be  provided 
according  to  her  wish. 

Strengthened  in  disagreeable  resolution  by  bath 
and  toilet  and  a  cup  of  tea,  he  stopped,  on  his  way 
out  of  the  building,  at  the  quarters  of  his  friend 
Clarkson.  Of  this  gentleman  he  caught  a  glimpse 
in  his  inner  room,  in  light  attire,  engaged  in  a 
matinal  exercise  of  lifting  himself  some  hundreds 
of  times  successfully  upon  his  toes,  with  a  view  to 
the  ultimate  enlargement  of  a  pair  of  unsatisfying 
calves. 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  93 

"  Sit  down,  old  chap/'  called  out  Clarkson,  cheer 
fully.  "  I  'm  ou  my  last  hundred,  and  shall  be  with 
you  in  a  minute  —  ninety-four,  ninety-five,  ninety-six 
—  I  'm  really  tremendously  encouraged.  Talk  about 
climbing  Alps  —  ninety-seven,  ninety-eight  —  it  's 
nothing  to  this  —  ninety-nine,  one  hundred — there!  I 
really  believe  I  '11  be  able  to  wear  knickerbockers  this 
summer.  Though  the  increase  in  girth  is  slow,  I  don't 
find  the  exercise  half  so  tiresome  as  I  did,  and  I  mean 
to  give  the  thing  fall  trial.  Stop  and  breakfast  with 
me,  won't  you  ?  Can't  promise  you  much  to  eat ;  but 
I  '11  have  my  tea  and  toast  and  an  egg  in,  directly." 

"It  is  so  late  now,  I  'm  going  to  lunch  with  my 
maiden  aunts,  instead  of  breakfasting,"  said  Gordon. 
"  There  's  a  matter  I  want  to  consult  you  about.  I 
think  you  told  me  you  have  a  relative  who  was  or  is 
one  of  the  instructors  at  Somerville  College  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Clarkson,  emerging  in  a  gorgeous  dress 
ing-gown.  "A  cousin  —  about  my  age  —  brought  up 
in  our  house.  Don't  mind  telling  you  that  I  'd  have 
married  her  once,  if  she  'd  have  had  me.  But  she 
preferred  single-blessedness,  and  illimitable  power  to 
boss.  Nice  little  fortune  of  her  own,  too.  Teaches 
because  she  likes  it.  Writes  pamphlets  —  all  that 
sort  of  thing.  Fine  woman,  though  —  very." 

"  Could  I  trouble  you  to  find  out  from  her,  in  con 
fidence,  any  information  they  may  have  in  the  faculty 
about  a  lady  who  was  once  an  inmate  of  their  insti 
tution  !  " 

"  Gad !  you  speak  as  if  it  were  a  lunatic  asylum, 
Gordon,"  said  Clarkson,  with  a  grin.  "What  you 
mean  is  a  'student  at  their  university.7" 


94  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"Not  a  student  —  a  teacher,"  said  Gordon,  giving 
the  name  of  the  object  of  his  search. 

"A  client,  eh?" 

"  I  arn  acting  in  the  interest  of  a  friend ;  and  I 
need  not  tell  you  that  whatever  information  I  receive 
will  be  treated  with  respect,  and  brought  to  bear  only 
upon  righteous  ends." 

"  I  '11  write  to  Kitty  to-day  —  Katharine  —  I  beg 
her  pardon.  And  to  think,  Gordon,  that  woman  — 
nicest  creature  you  ever  saw — round  and  rosy,  with 
dimples  —  by  George!  such  dimples! — might  have 
been  my  wife  long  ago,  if  she  had  n't  sacrificed  us 
both  to  an  ideal.  Said  I  would  n't  sympathize  with 
her  aims,  and  therefore  she  could  n't  make  me  happy. 
Here  I  am,  an  old  bach. ;  and  she  a  spinster  of  thirty- 
five  —  pretty  still !  Well,  hearts  don't  break,  Gor 
don  ;  hearts  don't  break,  in  this  world.  Look  at  that 
for  a  pair  of  calves,  now.  Pretty  fair,  are  n't  they  ? 
Not  quite  up  to  silk  fleshings  for  a  fancy  ball,  per 
haps —  but  fair.  I  'in  thinking  of  going  in  for  a  new 
health-food  I  've  seen  greatly  advertised  for  fatten 
ing,  if  I  could  be  sure  of  getting"  it  properly  cooked 
at  the  club.  That 's  one  advantage  a  man  has  when 
he  's  married,  Gordon.  He  can  keep  at  it  till  they 
cook  things  to  suit  him  in  his  home;  but  the  nui 
sance  of  trying  to  teach  those  servants  at  the  club 
is  —  why,  sir,  I  —  " 

"  I  won't  keep  you  from  your  breakfast,  longer," 
said  Gordon,  smiling.  "  Good-by,  and  thank  you  for 
your  promised  cooperation  in  my  little  affair." 

"  Little  affair,"  he  repeated  to  himself  on  his  way 
to  luncheon  with  his  aunts.  "  That  's  a  misnomer. 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  95 

Marion's  life,  heretofore,  has  been  like  a  fair  white 
page.  What  may  not  that  woman  inscribe  on  it? 
For  I  do  not,  I  cannot,  feel  satisfied  there  is  not  a 
niche  sealed  up  in  Madame  Stauffer's  past,  that  con 
tains  some  record  of  a  moral  warfare  with  society  in 
which  she  has  been  worsted.  She  is  a  mistress  in 
the  art  of  self-control,  but  I  saw  in  her  eyes  that 
which  sought  to  evade  the  too  close  scrutiny  of  mine. 
It  was  but  for  an  instant,  but  the  red  flag  warned  me ; 
and  for  Marion's  sake,  I  pray  God  the  woman  may  be 
got  out  of  Marion's  home  and  thoughts  as  quickly  as 
possible." 

THE  Misses  Stella,  Clarissa,  and  Euphemia  Gordon 
enjoyed  the  claim  to  respectful  consideration,  rare 
in  New  York  of  the  present  day,  of  residing  in  the 
house  where  they,  and  there  father  before  them,  had 
first  seen  the  light. 

Now  well  advanced  in  years,  these  maidens,  whose 
fortune  was  to  descend  to  the  sou  of  their  younger 
brother  Alexander,  had  survived  the  old-time  preten 
sion  of  the  family  to  "  lead  New  York."  From  time 
to  time,  indeed,  they  received  their  friends  in  this 
house  built  by  their  grandfather  on  a  suburban  prop 
erty  of  his  near  the  Hudson  River,  in  preference  to  a 
site  of  greater  value  in  Broadway,  because  the  old 
gentleman  feared  the  noise  and  dust  of  a  post-road 
outside  the  windows  of  his  wife's  drawing-room. 
On  such  occasions — although  fashion,  save  when  en 
gaged  in  paying  its  respects  to  the  Gordons,  had 
kept  aloof  from  the  spot  now  hemmed  in  by  houses 
given  over  as  tenements  to  an  encroaching  popula- 


96  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

tion  of  foreigners,  its  garden  overshadowed  by  an 
elevated  railway — "every  one"  was  there,  because 
not  to  be  seen  there  would  have  argued  uuacquaiu- 
tauce  with  the  "  best  old  stock." 

New-comers  and  youngsters  of  the  ruling  genera 
tion  might  stray  through  the  large,  dull  rooms,  won 
dering  how  life  could  have  been  endured  upon  carpets 
artlessly  sprinkled  with  the  lily  and  the  rose,  amid 
furnishings  of  rosewood  and  satin  damask,  giran 
doles  with  twinkling  lusters,  florid  mirror-frames, 
and  statuettes  on  pedestals  in  every  other  window 
But  still  society  respected  the  Gordon  house,  and 
obeyed  its  summons  as  of  yore.  In  the  eyes  of  some 
ancients  there  lingered  about  the  place  a  softly  lam 
bent  halo,  recalling  the  merry  days  of  their  youth. 
It  was  all  very  well,  they  would  allege,  for  brilliant 
latter-day  architects  to  reproduce,  for  new  people 
with  long  purses,  purely  "colonial"  interiors,  and 
call  them  a  revival  of  the  best  of  early  American  art. 
Early  America  never  dreamed  of  such  beauty  and 
harmony  as  these  artists  evolve  for  their  clients. 
But,  with  all  its  sins  against  modern  creeds  in  deco 
ration,  here  were  the  actual  surroundings  of  the  gen 
tlefolk  who  were  the  founders  of  their  body  social. 
One  must  needs  be  a  Gordon  to  display  now,  on  a 
center-table  with  a  marble  top,  a  wreath  of  shell- 
flowers  under  a  dome  of  glass. 

As  far  as  Alec  knew,  this  wreath  had  never  left 
this  table.  So,  also,  on  a  little  mahogany  stand  in 
the  dining-room,  a  "  Scott's  Bible  "  still  nestled  in  a 
worsted  mat.  This  he  could  not  see  without  a  vision 
of  himself  in  infancy  at  family  prayers,  fatally  im- 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  97 

pelled  by  original  sin  to  kneel  where  he  could  have 
an  eye  upon  a  certain  china  basket  containing  crul 
lers,  kept  always  upon  the  buffet.  Abhorring  at  this 
date  of  his  life  the  old  Dutch  dainty  as  he  had  loved 
it  then,  it  was  yet  inextricably  associated  in  his  mind 
with  the  act  of  devotion. 

Through  a  like  twist  of  psychology,  he  could  never 
kiss  the  ivory-tinted  cheek  of  his  Aunt  Stella,  pre 
sented  to  him  by  that  gentle  old  lady,  without  fancy 
ing  he  perceived  the  scent  of  rose  geranium  in  the 
air.  He  had  always  heard  of  her  u  dressed  for  a 
party"  in  a  book-muslin,  with  a  blue  scarf,  a  cameo 
brooch,  a  camellia  with  rose-geranium  leaves  in  the 
hair  behind  her  ear.  This  tradition  of  the  family 
beauty  equipped  for  conquest,  as  described  to  him  in 
childhood,  was  indelible ;  as  likewise  the  picture  of 
Aunt  Clarissa  dancing  a  shawl  dance  for  the  com 
pany  at  a  ball  given  upon  her  "  coming  out."  Alec 
quite  believed  he  had  seen  the  latter  performance, 
although  a  reflection  upon  dates  would  have  proved 
it  impossible. 

The  same  endurance  of  early  impressions  upon  the 
mind  of  a  child  kept  in  him  a  faint  belief  in  the  abil 
ity  of  puzzle-cards  tied  together  with  faded  ribbon  to 
amuse  a  visitor.  Nor  did  he  doubt  that  Aunt  Clarissa 
had  an  "admirable  finger"  for  the  guitar;  and  he 
sympathized  earnestly  when  Aunt  Stella  confided  to 
him  that,  in  deference  to  a  promise  once  extracted 
by  her  mama,  she  had  never  read  any  of  the  works 
of  Lord  Byron  ! 

His  two  elder  aunts,  who  were  twins,  were  sitting 
together  awaiting  summons  to  the  early  dinner  that 

7 


98  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

on  Sunday  did  dnty  for  luncheon,  when  Gordon  was 
shown  into  their  presence. 

The  dim  room,  its  shutters  bowed  to  keep  sunshine 
from  the  carpet,  the  gray  cerements  upon  chairs  and 
sofas,  the  tiny  coal-fire  in  the  grate,  Miss  Stella's  pug, 
and  Miss  Clarissa's  pussy,  were  all  as  usual. 

The  sisters,  having  returned  from  morning  service, 
were,  according  to  custom,  engaged  in  analyzing  the 
sermon  until  the  dinner-bell  should  ring. 

As  the  young  man  entered,  Aunt  Stella  arose  auto 
matically  and  presented  her  cheek  for  his  salute. 
Alec  knew  just  how  many  steps  he  would  have  to 
make  across  the  hearth-rug  to  meet  Aunt  Clarissa 
and  her  cheek.  Then,  sitting  between  them,  he  heard 
from  Aunt  Stella  the  exact  condition  of  Aunt  Cla 
rissa's  health,  and  from  Aunt  Clarissa  how  the  last 
medicine  had  affected  Aunt  Stella's  harmless  malady. 
It  was  next  in  order  to  stroke  the  cat,  which,  advan 
cing  to  greet  him,  made  of  her  back  an  arch  against 
his  leg,  and  the  pug,  which,  resting  his  forefeet  on 
Gordon's  knee,  wheezed  an  asthmatic  "how  d'  ye  do." 

"And  Aunt  Erne!"  asked  Alec,  cheerfully. 

Aunt  Stella  cleared  her  throat  in  a  feebly  depre 
cating  fashion.  Aunt  Clarissa  did  likewise. 

"  Euphemia  has  not  yet  returned  from  service," 
said  the  twins,  reluctantly. 

"She  still  keeps  up  her  preaching  to  those  poor 
people  in  the  Hell's  Kitchen  district!" 

"  Oh,  yes,  my  dear  Alexander ;  she  still  does,"  said 
Aunt  Stella,  the  readier  speaker  of  the  two.  "  When 
I  think  of  my  poor  mama,  who  was  the  most  shrink 
ing  and  sensitive  of  females,  of  my  papa,  who  had  a 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  99 

horror  of  ladies  of  our  position  being  put  before  the 
public  in  any  way  —  I  really  am  almost  glad  they  are 
spared  Euphemia's  extraordinary  conduct.  To  teach 
in  a  Sunday-school  —  that,  indeed,  is  one  thing ;  but 
to  conduct  a  service  of  her  own  arrangement, —  a  ser 
vice  not  in  the  prayer-look, —  to  stand  on  a  platform 
and  speak  before  the  men  and  women  of  that  horrible 
quarter ! " 

"Yes,  my  dear  Alexander,  in  spite  of  all  we  can 
say,"  chimed  in  Aunt  Clarissa.  "  It  is  not  only  that 
she  has  the  most  shocking-looking  characters  calling 
here  and  waiting  in  the  hall ;  that  she  receives  visits 
from  people  who,  I  know,  had  just  as  soon  as  not 
throw  a  bomb  into  our  dining-room  if  they  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  plate  upon  the  side-board;  that  she 
attends  meetings,  and  offers  resolutions  just  like  a 
man :  but  she  now  writes  for  the  newspapers  —  and 
what  is  going  to  become  of  us,  Heaven  knows  ! " 

"At  Effle's  age,  she  should  be  more  careful  than 
she  is  of  appearances,"  began  Miss  Stella ;  "  not  even 
a  maid  to  attend  her  when  she  goes  into  those  dread 
ful  places  !  " 

"At  fifty-odd  I  think  Aunt  Effie  might  be  trusted," 
said  Alec,  smiling ;  and  the  midday  meal  being  an 
nounced,  his  energies  were  for  a  time  devoted  to 
carving  a  turkey  upon  a  willow-pattern  dish,  and  to 
appeasing  the  pangs  of  his  vigorous  appetite. 

"What  has  Aunt  Effie  been  writing  about  to  the 
newspapers  ? "  he  said,  at  a  convenient  opportunity. 

"  Hush  ! "  said  Aunt  Stella,  warningly,  till  assured 
that  the  servant  was  out  of  hearing.  "We  try  to 
keep  it  from  our  people,  Alexander.  It  is  a  great 


100  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

sorrow,  but  we  must  bear  it  as  we  can.  It  was  bad 
enough  when  she  wrote  a  letter  defending  a  Greek 
flower-seller  unjustly  arrested,  and  even  went  into 
court  to  testify  to  his  good  character ;  but  what  will 
you  say  to  her  communicating  to  the  press  a  new 
scheme  she  has  for  the  cremation  of  —  I  hate  to  men 
tion  it  at  table  —  of  —  garbage  in  the  flats  of  poor 
people  ?  " 

"  Kitchen  refuse  would  have  been  a  better  word, 
sister,"  said  Clarissa,  in  mild  rebuke.  "  Yes  !  What 
a  subject  for  a  refined,  elegant  female.  Why,  she 
should  not  know  that  such  a  thing  exists ! " 

"  It  is  a  mystery  I  can  never  solve,  why  Euphemia, 
who  was  given  just  the  advantages  we  had,  should 
be  so  far  from  sharing  our  tastes  and  occupations." 

"Alec,  my  lad,  you  're  as  welcome  as  flowers  in 
March,"  exclaimed  a  hearty  voice ;  and  Miss  Euphe 
mia  Gordon,  in  a  tailor-made  suit  of  masculine  cut, 
and  a  pointed  felt  hat,  walked  into  the  dining-room, 
and  took  her  place,  after  greeting  her  nephew  with  a 
stout  shake  of  the  hand. 

Between  the  pastel  tints  and  old-time  poses  of  her 
sisters,  this  daughter  of  the  house  of  Gordon  resem 
bled  a  vigorous  sketch  in  black  and  white.  Stout  of 
frame,  and  never  in  her  best  days  called  handsome, 
Miss  Effie's  face  was  radiant  with  health,  good-nature, 
and  indomitable  purpose. 

Luncheon  over,  she  carried  Alec  away  to  her  own 
room,  an  apartment  severely  devoted  to  papers,  a 
table  with  a  type-writer  between  two  southern  win 
dows  full  of  sunshine,  some  chairs,  and  a  desk,  of 
which  the  pigeon-holes  were  well  filled  with  neatly 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  101 

parceled  documents.  Here  Miss  Effie  transacted  the 
business  of  her  life  —  in  its  broadest  and  truest  sense 
the  business  of  other  people's  lives. 

"  Now,  answer  me,"  she  asked,  wasting  no  words  in 
preliminaries,  "  what  did  you  mean  by  going  off  on 
that  journey  without  coming  to  tell  me  in  person  of 
your  trouble  with  Marion  ? " 

"  I  simply  could  not  speak  of  it,"  he  said. 

"I  ought  by  this  time  to  know  the  Gordon  lock 
jaw,"  she  said,  sitting  down  in  her  office-chair,  op 
posite  him.  "Well,  are  you  disposed  to  be  more 
communicative  now  ?  " 

"  I  ought  to  hold  you  accountable,  Aunt  Effie,"  he 
answered,  with  a  half  smile.  "  It  is  your  creed  that 
has  infected  her.  And  all  this  while  I  was  comfort 
ing  myself  with  the  idea  that,  if  Marion's  indulgence 
in  certain  notions  should  make  her  turn  out  to  be 
such  a  big-souled  woman,  helpful  to  herself  and  all 
around  her,  as  you  are,  they  could  do  her  only  good." 

While  he  told  her  in  brief  his  story,  Miss  Effie, 
listening,  let  the  tenderness  of  her  nature  creep  into 
her  homely  face. 

"  My  boy,"  she  said  softly,  when  he  had  done,  "  don't 
you  know  we  women  have  to  learn  our  wisdom  as  you 
men  do  —  by  experiments,  blunders,  and  new  experi 
ments  controlled  by  experience  ?  And  don't  you  know 
my  ideal  society,  wherein  men  and  women  shall  work 
side  by  side,  having  share  and  share  alike  of  the  duties, 
responsibilities,  and  rewards  of  life  ?  I  had  hoped  that 
you  and  Marion  were  going  to  be  its  corner-stones; 
and  if  she  has  stumbled  and  fallen  away  from  you  in 
the  darkness  before  dawn,  I  mean  to  believe  that  you 

7* 


102  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

will  grope  till  you  find  each  other's  hands  again,  and 
grasp  them  never  to  be  separated." 

"  I  'm  afraid  you  're  a  dreamer,  dear  Aunt  Effie,"  the 
young  man  said  sadly. 

"It  's  the  first  time  I  Ve  been  accused  of  it  then. 
Bless  me,  Alec,  don't  I  know  this  girl  is  just  stifled  by 
the  life  she  's  been  leading  as  a  polite  slave  of  the 
nineteenth  century  in  America.  She  must  have  time 
and  opportunity  to  gratify  her  longing  for  a  certain 
independence  of  thought  and  action ;  to  find  out  for 
herself  the  values  of  the  prizes  of  life,  before  she 
settles  down  to  the  task  of  being  a  wife  and  mother. 
She  can't  compromise  with  her  conscience,  to  sacrifice 
to  the  petty  duties  of  home  her  mental  powers,  until 
she  has  tested  the  exercise  of  them  in  a  wider  field. 
You  ask  me  what  she  wants  to  do  —  what  she  thinks 
she  can  do  1  You  don't  know,  I  don't  know ;  perhaps 
she  does  n't  know  yet.  But  she  has  put  to  herself  the 
question  that  is  the  question  of  the  age :  '  What  am 
I?  What  do  I  mean  to  be?  Am  I  not  folding  my 
talent  in  a  napkin,  by  just  allowing  a  man  to  love  me 
and  loving  him  in  return?  Who  knows  how  long 
this  love  will  last  intact?  When  I  look  around  me, 
what  do  I  see  but  strained,  disillusioned  couples,  who 
live  together  because  they  have  sworn  to  do  so,  whose 
hearts  are  cold,  whose  spirits  hold  each  other  forever 
to  account  ? '  Marion  may  not  recognize  this,  but  it 
is  what  makes  her  fearful.  The  sense  of  her  respon 
sibility  to  herself  is  just  now  greater  than  her  desire 
for  love." 

"Decidedly  greater,"  said  the  young  man,  with  a 
reddening  face,  as  he  got  up  to  walk  about  the  room. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  103 

"  Now,  Alee,  don't  be  miffed  with  your  plain-speak 
ing  old  aunty.  If  Marion  knew  you  as  I  do,  she 
would  have  no  fear.  Be  fair ;  and  own  that  if  all  girls 
weighed  as  well  their  chances  of  married  happiness, 
there  would  be  fewer  of  the  fearful  mistakes  we  see 
about  us.  But  no  !  Most  of  them  go  to  the  altar, 
their  heads  dizzy  with  their  own  importance,  with 
thoughts  of  their  presents,  bridesmaids,  jewels,  es 
tablishment,  at  the  side  of  a  lover  who  swears  they 
are  perfection.  How  many  of  these  escape  the  hour 
of  bewildered  dismay  when  they  realize  the  bond  that 
makes  them  subject  for  life  to  a  man  they  can  have 
known  only  on  the  surface?  I  believe  if  wedding- 
presents"  could  be  made  into  a  pile,  and  the  wife  of  a 
month  could  offer  herself  upon  them  in  suttee,  it 
would  be  a  not  uncommon  event." 

"  You  are  not  cheering,  Aunt  Effie." 

"But  I  speak  the  truth  —  the  truth  that  mothers 
know,  and  yet  hide  under  wedding  frippery,  giving 
their  girls  no  chance  to  discover  it,  until  too  late.  It 
seems  to  me  that,  until  girls  are  educated  to  think  and 
act  more  freely,  even  the  foreign  fashion  of  the  parents 
deciding  for  them  in  marriage  would  be  a  wiser  one 
than  that  now  prevailing." 

"No  fault  can  be  found  with  the  average  young 
woman's  willingness  to  '  know  all  things,'  "  said  Gor 
don.  "  That  is,  if  we  are  to  judge  by  the  freedom  of 
speech  and  discussion  that  seems  to  be  the  outcome  of 
young  woman's  emancipation.  I  declare  to  you,  Aunt 
Effie,  my  gorge  rises  at  the  books  I  hear  discussed  in 
modern  drawing-rooms.  I  am  told  even  school-girls 
read  these  stories,  written  by  women  'with  a  purpose,' 


104  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

happily  sometimes  too  well-veiled  to  be  perceived  by 
their  innocent  readers.  But  who  knows,  if  they  are 
to  explore  all  veins  of  thought,  what  our  girls  will  not 
come  to  knowing  or  surmising?  No,  no ;  the  girl  of 
my  imagination,  like  that  of  every  honest  and  healthy- 
minded  young  man,  is  the  old-fashioned  Una  sitting 
upon  the  lion's  back,  passing  unsmirched  through  the 
world — the  girl  who  loves  and  trusts,  and  accepts  with 
womanly  dignity  the  lot  her  Creator  has  set  aside  for 
her.  As  to  some  of  the  advisers  of  young  femininity 
in  these  days  —  those  who  rant  and  shriek,  and  fer 
ment  society  without  arriving  at  any  result  —  may 
the  Lord  settle  with  them  according  to  their  deserts 
for  the  mischief  they  are  doing ! " 

"  I  don't  know  what  they  are  reading,  and  I  don't 
go  to  the  play,"  said  Miss  Effie.  "  When  I  want  to 
be  entertained  I  just  take  down  a  volume  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  or  Thackeray,  or  Dumas.  I  feel  no 
call  to  investigate  these  Ibsens  and  Maeterlincks,  and 
the  queer  English  novels — written  generally  by  wo 
men,  as  you  say — I  see  mentioned  in  the  newspapers." 

"  I  wish  there  were  more  like  you,  Aunt  Effie,  and 
you  might  bring  us  over  to  your  way  of  thinking." 

"Oh,  my  dear,  I  am  just  a  plain  old  woman,  not 
clever  or  progressive,  in  the  '  highf alutiu '  modern 
sense.  Long  ago  I  found  out  my  work,  and  I  am 
happy  without  husband  or  chick  or  child.  I  have 
never  had  experience  of  the  feverish  mental  condi 
tions  of  many  women  of  this  hour — but  I  can  under 
stand  them,  and,  in  a  degree,  sympathize  with  them. 
I  believe  they  will  end  in  something  sane  and  sound. 
And,  to  come  back  to  where  we  started, —  to  Mar' 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  105 

ion, —  I  repeat  that  she  is  developing  in  a  period 
when  women  no  longer  accept  their  fate  blindly. 
She  knows  it  would  be  as  disastrous  to  you  both,  to 
devote  her  life  to  a  union  in  which  she  is  not  abso 
lutely  sure  of  her  willingness  to  submit  to  a  tremen 
dous  will  like  yours,  as  to  live  that  life  in  any  mere 
self-indulgence." 

"Marion  could  hardly  have  felt  herself  called  on 
to  sacrifice  anything  that  is  good  in  her  to  selfish  or 
trivial  demands  from  me,"  he  said  coldly. 

"  There,  there,  I  Ve  cut  you,  without  intending  it. 
I  know  you,  but  how  can  she!  How  can  any  girl 
know  the  lover  who  is  captive  to  her  youth  and 
beauty!"  She  sees  you  through  a  veil,  dimly.  Bide 
your  time,  and  I  trust  she  will  come  back  to  you  — 
for,  oh,  Alec !  what  a  grand  couple  you  would  make ! " 

Aunt  Effie's  all-feminine  burst  of  admiring  cham 
pionship  was  too  much  for  her  nephew's  sense  of 
humor.  He  laughed;  she  laughed,  patted  his  head, 
made  him  light  a  fresh  cigar ;  and,  stretched  upon 
her  hard  little  lounge,  he  entered  into  one  of  the 
long,  intimate  talks  he  well  knew  how  to  value. 

LATER  that  afternoon  Gordon  met  Stremof,  and 
took  him  to  the  Irvings'  house.  They  found  Marion 
in  the  drawing-room,  who  told  them  that  Madame 
Stauffer,  having  letters  to  finish,  would  join  them 
before  long. 

Then  Gordon,  seeing  Stremof  s  anxiety  for  a  con 
versation  with  Miss  Irving  in  which  he  might  not 
be  always  a  third  between  two  people  so  linked  by 
past  relation,  took  the  opportunity  to  seek  the  in- 


106  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

terview  with  Marion's  father  to  which  he  was  urged 
by  conscience  rather  than  by  inclination.  There  was 
no  false  sentiment  in  his  mind  about  ousting  the 
homeless  little  person  safely  ensconced  in  Marion's 
chamber,  in  possession  of  all  the  privileges  of  Mar 
ion's  dwelling.  If  she  were,  as  he  honestly  believed, 
dangerous  to  Marion's  peace,  then  go  she  must.  And 
yet  he  wished  it  could  have  been  another  than  him 
self  who  was  to  sow  the  seed  of  doubt  of  her  in  the 
judge's  unsuspecting  mind. 

Thus  pricked  by  regret,  he  opened  the  door  of  the 
library  —  a  spot  where  he  had  never  failed  to  find  the 
warmest  welcome;  and  there  saw  what  intensified 
his  original  mistrust. 

In  his  great  arm-chair,  his  hands  folded,  leaning 
back  with  a  look  of  entire  mental  satisfaction,  sat  the 
handsome  judge,  over  whose  fine,  clear-cut  features 
the  firelight  played  with  cheering  warmth.  At  the 
end  of  the  table  nearest  him,  Sara  Stauffer,  pencil  in 
hand,  was  checking  off  a  catalogue  of  an  expected 
sale  of  books,  writing  upon  the  margin  notes  at  the 
dictation  of  his  Honor. 

Gordon  well  knew  the  task.  It  was  one  in  which 
he  had  often  served  the  judge  as  Madame  Stauffer 
was  now  serving  him.  Judge  Irving  had  no  instinct 
of  the  solitary  bookworm  who  burrows  in  the  dark. 
He  liked  to  discuss,  with  some  confidential  and  ap 
preciative  spirit,  values,  editions,  bindings,  the  ques 
tion  of  duplicates  of  the  volumes  he  desired.  Once 
acquired,  the  books  were  apt  to  remain  upon  their 
shelves,  unless  taken  down  for  dusting  or  to  display 
to  envying  connoisseurs. 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  107 

It  was  not  the  service  yielded  by  Sara  Stauffer  that 
made  Gordon  conscious  of  a  stab  of  disagreeable  sur 
prise.  That  might  have  been  exacted  by  the  judge 
from  any  one  intelligent  enough  to  render  it,  and 
tactful  enough  to  make  him  think  all  the  wisdom  in 
the  matter  came  from  him.  In  the  curves  at  the  cor 
ners  of  the  judge's  lips  Gordon  could  read  vanity  well 
satisfied  by  daintiest  feeding.  After  all,  what  could 
a  dependent  creature  like  this  do  better,  to  make  her 
self  welcome  in  a  house  where  a  guest  stopping  over 
night  had  been  till  now  a  thing  almost  unknown  ? 
No,  it  was  not  the  subtle  incense  which  Sara  had 
been  burning  under  the  judge's  nostrils  that  Gordon 
objected-to.  If  poor  Marion  had  burnt  more  of  that, 
she  would  have  had  an  easier  lot.  But  it  was  an 
other  one  of  those  momentary  flashes  of  self-con 
sciousness  he  met  in  Sara's  eyes,  when  she  thus  un 
expectedly  confronted  him,  that  made  him  pause, 
uncertain  how  to  move  next  in  his  game  against  her. 
He  could  not  tell  whether  she  meant  defiance,  or  pro 
test,  or  appeal.  Perhaps  all  three.  But  the  expres 
sion  was  withdrawn  as  nimbly  as  the  tongue  of  a 
toad  after  his  winged  prey  is  secured.  It  was  suc 
ceeded  in  her  soft,  dark  orbs  by  a  look  of  ingenuous 
welcome. 

"  There,  you  have  come !  I  resign  my  task,"  she 
said,  rising,  while  the  beaming  countenance  of  the 
judge  became  never  so  little  blank.  "Judge  Irving 
feared  you  had  forgotten  him,  and  he  wanted  so 
much  to  be  prepared  for  this  sale  on  Wednesday. 
Don't  criticize  the  paucity  or  the  ignorance  of  my 
notes,  please.  I  am  only  an  humble  understudy, 


108  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

who  has  taken  the  place  of  the  leading  man  upon 
occasion." 

"  She  has  done  it  remarkably  well,  Alec,"  said  the 
judge,  rallying.  "  I  may  say  that  I  never  before  met 
a  lady  who  had  her  grasp  of  the  thing.  But  I  won't 
detain  you,  Madame  Stauffer.  After  dinner  you  will 
give  us  some  Chopin,  perhaps." 

"  It  is  so  good  of  you  to  listen.  Marion  and  I  are 
so  proud  of  the  success  of  our  little  home  musicales," 
she  said,  with  perfect  propriety.  "  If  Mr.  Gordon  is 
dining  with  you,  perhaps  he  too  will  do  us  the  honor 
afterward  to  be  a  listener  to  one  of  our  four-handed 
pieces  —  " 

"  It 's  not  those  things  I  care  much  about,"  said  the 
candid  judge.  "  It 's  when  you  play  without  knowing 
beforehand  what  you  are  going  to  fall  upon.  By 
George  !  Gordon,  that 's  wonderful !  If  you  have  n't 
heard  her,  you  've  a  treat  before  you." 

"  If  I  know  anything  is  expected  of  me,  I  invariably 
fall  flat,"  said  Sara,  laughing,  on  her  way  out  of  the 
door. 

Gordon,  who  closed  it  after  her,  was  rather  smitten 
with  a  certain  meek  grace  of  her  manner, —  a  resigna 
tion  to  her  position  as  entertaining  supernumerary, — 
as  was  apparent^  the  judge. 

"  Pity  a  fine  creature  like  that  should  be  put  to  the 
right  about  to  make  her  own  meager  living/'  said  his 
Honor.  "  Do  you  know,  Gordon,  I  was  meaning  to 
consult  you  about  an  idea  I  Ve  got  of  asking  her 
to  —  er  —  ah  —  accept  compensation  as  a  kind  of  — 
er  —  ah  —  librarian  for  me,  and  at  the  same  time,  a 
companion  to  Marion,  who  is  never  happy  out  of  her 
sight." 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  109 

"  What  do  you  know  of  Madame  Stauffer ! "  asked 
Gordon,  from  whose  path  the  first  stone  was  thus 
felicitously  rolled  away. 

"Know  —  er  —  ah  —  why  —  she  was  an  instructor 
at  Somerville  College.  I  have  often  heard  you  vaunt 
the  intelligence  and  good  judgment  of  that  faculty." 

"But  before?  Since!  I  understand  how  Marion 
answers  these  questions ;  but  that  is  not  indorsement 
enough  for  the  woman  who  is  to  make  a  permanent 
part  of  your  home,  and  to  be  the  guiding  influence  of 
Marion's  life." 

An  expression  that  began  with  foolishness  and 
ended  with  vexation  came  upon  his  Honor's  face.  His 
temper,  always  ready  to  explode  upon  being  crossed 
or  dictated  to,  flew  to  the  relief  of  the  situation.  To 
Gordon  he  was  simply  cross,  to  Marion  he  would  have 
been  insufferably  rude.  In  sufficiently  plain  terms,  he 
announced  himself  quite  able  to  take  care  of  the  in 
terests  of  his  household  without  interference  from 
without.  He  eulogized  the  sterling  excellence,  above 
all  the  submissiveness  of  character,  of  the  cause  of 
their  dissension ;  and  summed  her  up  by  saying  that, 
for  a  woman,  she  had  an  amount  of  good  common 
sense  that  would  keep  her  from  making  mistakes  or 
committing  follies,  no  matter  what  the  provocation. 

Alec,  who,  on  the  judge's  outbreak  of  irritation,  had 
begun  to  poke  at  a  lump  of  cannel-coal,  here  succeeded 
in  shattering  it  into  a  glowing  mass,  licked  by  tongues 
of  livid  flame  that  spread  radiance  to  the  farthest  ends 
of  the  room.  It  was  growing  dark,  and  the  lamps 
had  not  yet  been  brought  in ;  but  this  enabled  him  to 
give  another  glance  at  his  senior's  countenance,  in 


110  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

which  he  read  something  sufficiently  startling  to 
make  him  wish  at  once  to  change  the  subject. 

A  feature  of  the  ebullitions  of  Judge  Irving's  tem 
per  was  that,  without  opposition,  they  died  out  as 
quickly  as  they  came.  He  was  really  so  well  satisfied 
with  his  own  importance  and  his  own  judgment,  it 
did  not  seem  worth  while  to  contend  for  them.  Hav 
ing  sufficiently  silenced  Gordon  upon  the  point  under 
dispute,  he  turned  the  conversation  to  the  young  law 
yer's  chances  for  political  advancement ;  upon  which 
topic,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  such  minor  matters  as 
women  and  their  influence  for  good  or  ill,  they  talked 
until  dinner-time. 

Stremcf,  who  had  awaited  Gordon's  return  until  he 
could  wait  no  more,  had  long  ago  taken  his  leave. 
One  or  two  other  people  had  dropped  in;  but  Sara 
Stauffer  did  not  appear.  When  Marion  was  free  to 
go  up-stairs  and  look  for  her,  she  found  her  door 
locked,  and  Sara  protesting  through  the  key-hole  that 
she  was  dressing  for  dinner,  and  would  join  her  below 
in  due  time.  But  Sara  had  not  heen  dressing  for 
dinner  ever  since  she  left  the  library.  For  a  long 
time  she  had  been  pacing  her  floor  in  a  stormy  wrath 
that  shook  her  frail  figure  like  a  reed.  Then  she  had 
thrown  herself  across  her  bed  and  sobbed,  shedding 
hot  tears  of  a  nature  we  must  hope  the  Higher  Wo 
man  will  never  be  called  upon  to  shed  —  tears  of  rage 
and  defiance,  mingled  with  overmastering  love  for 
one  of  the  abject  creatures  born  into  the  world  to 
be  woman's  cross  and  curse  !  Sara  may  perhaps  be 
pardoned  this  weakness,  when  we  reflect  that  it  was 
the  first  time  in  her  thirty  years  of  varied  experience 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  111 

she  had  ever  known  the  bitter-sweet  experience  of 
caring  for  another  more  than  for  herself. 

When  she  appeared  at  dinner  she  found  their  party 
of  three  supplemented  "by  Gordon,  who  had  been  in 
duced  by  the  judge  to  remain  as  he  was,  in  morning 
clothes.  Not  the  closest  student  of  the  human  mask 
could  have  read  in  hers  a  trace  of  the  storm  that  had 
recently  swept  over  it.  So  gracious,  graceful,  modest, 
yet  entertaining  withal,  was  she,  that  even  Gordon 
was  drawn  into  the  circle  influenced  by  her.  Marion, 
effacing  herself,  looked  proudly  on  at  the  irresistible 
effect  of  Sara's  charm  upon  Alec. 

And  the  judge !  What  had  become  of  the  testy, 
elderly  gentleman  who  usually  occupied  that  chair  at 
the  head  of  the  table,  who  either  fretted  at  the  butler 
about  the  wines,  the  joint,  the  game,  the  salad,  or  else 
sat  in  gloomy  silence  that  fell  over  his  household  like 
a  pall  ?  He  was  gone,  and  in  his  place  sat  a  youngish, 
alert,  courteous,  good-looking  stranger,  the  model  of  a 
judge  off  duty,  a  judge  relaxed,  a  genial,  considerate 
parent,  and  host,  and  master  ! 

So  far  did  the  little  candle  of  Sara  Stauffer  throw 
its  beams.  And,  after  dinner,  when  she  sat  down 
behind  the  pianoforte  in  the  half  darkness  of  the 
lamp-lighted  music-room,  and  played  uninterruptedly 
for  half  an  hour,  Gordon  felt  himself  impelled  to  go 
over  to  her  side.  When  he  reached  her,  he  stopped 
short,  wondering  why  he  had  done  this  thing. 

"  You  won't  condemn  my  fingering,"  she  said  audi 
bly  to  the  others.  "  I  am  aware  that  according  to  rule 
it  is  lamentably  defective.  I  should  be  afraid  to  play 
before  Baron  Stremof,  for  example." 


112  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  But  you  have  a  gift  of  going  straight  to  the  heart 
with  your  music,  that  is  of  all  gifts  the  most  charm 
ing,"  he  replied,  enthusiastically. 

He  stood  there  for  a  moment,  and,  as  she  played 
louder,  added  in  a  lower  tone :  "  I  think  you  are  a 
Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,  to  have  lifted  me  from  my 
chair,  and  brought  me  across  the  room,  for  what 
reason  I  know  not." 

She  did  not  answer,  but  her  music  just  then  con 
veyed  such  "divine  enchanting  ravishment"  the  young 
man  felt  his  steady  brain  invaded  by  something  mar- 
velously  like  personal  attraction  to  the  player.  He 
wondered  if  it  were  true  that,  in  the  dusky  corner 
where  she  was  niched,  he  heard  a  half -breathed  sigh. 

The  music  stopped  with  a  crash.  With  a  petulant 
movement  Sara  arose  from  her  seat,  and  passed  over 
to  sit  on  a  stool  by  Marion,  resting  her  elbow  in  the 
girl's  lap. 

The  judge,  this  pretty  picture  in  full  view,  was 
quite  carried  out  of  himself  by  enthusiasm. 

"By  Jove!"  he  said,  gallantly,  "Madame  Stauffer 
has  bewitched  us  all!  Gordon  stands  there  moon 
struck;  I  believe  Marion  has  been  —  crying;  and  I — 
by  Jove ! "  he  repeated^  smiling  ecstatically,  but  at  a 
loss  for  further  words. 

Gordon,  saying  good  night,  got  out  into  the  street 
as  quickly  as  possible.  He  had  a  confused  idea  that 
Marion's  eyes  had  met  his  with  a  look  of  triumph,  and 
that  before  he  had  finished  shaking  hands  with  her, 
she  had  sought  Sara's  face  with  reverent  admiration. 
The  cool  air,  a  brisk  walk  down  the  avenue,  restored 
his  balance  and  made  him  see  things  as  they  were. 


A  BACHELOK   MAID  113 

"  The  little  Lorelei  is  stronger  than  I  thought ;  but 
she  has  done  no  more  than  make  an  ass  of  me  for  a 
minute  and  a  half.  The  question  is,  what  is  her 
game!  That,  I  shall  make  it  my  business  to  find 
out.  ...  I  wonder  what  Aunt  Effie,  who  is  a  shrewd 
old  dear,  meant  by  suggesting  Marion  will,  of  her 
own  accord,  come  back  to  me.  To-night  she  might 
have  been  a  star  trembling  upon  a  lonely  peak,  so  far 
away  she  seemed." 

When  he  reached  his  room,  he  took  out  of  a  desk 
an  imperial  photograph  of  Marion  which  he  had  asked 
her  to  let  him  keep.  As  he  gazed  at  it,  a  sweet,  hu 
man  look  of  love  and  trust  he  had  sometimes  seen 
there  made  a  fresh  imprint  upon  his  heart. 

"  There  is  none  like  you,  dear,"  he  said  loyally. 
"After  this,  either  I  win  you  back,  or  no  woman  shall 
claim  me.  And  now,  God  speed  my  quest ! " 


VI 


HREE  weeks  later  saw  Alec  Gordon 
again  in  the  hall  of  Judge  Irving's 
house,  asking,  with  conventional  in 
difference,  the  conventional  question 
if  "  the  ladies  "  were  at  home.  The 
man  who  had  admitted  him,  profess 
ing  to  be  unaware  of  the  movements  of  Madame 
Stauffer,  said  that  he  knew  that  Miss  Irving  had  gone 
to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  University  Settlement  As 
sociation,  as  he  himself  had  given  the  order  to  the 
coachman  to  drive  there. 

"  Very  well,  Hilary,"  said  Mr.  Gordon,  who  was  in 
reality  well  informed  as  to  the  point  upon  which  he 
sought  enlightenment.  "  Then  you  will  probably  find 
Madame  Stauffer  in  the  drawing-room ;  so  give  her 
my  card,  and  say  that  I  shall  not  detain  her  long." 
Madame  Stauffer  was  in  the  drawing-room.  When 
Gordon  entered  that  apartment,  he  had  a  sudden 
realizing  sense  of  the  fine  way  in  which  she  had  in 
corporated  herself  with  her  surroundings.  Her  face, 
figure,  and  dress  had  equally  improved  in  appearance. 
There  was  in  her  manner  a  species  of  elegant  nonchal 
ance  that  allowed  no  hint  to  escape  of  her  transitory 
relations  with  the  luxury  of  this  house  and  furniture. 

114 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  115 

The  sun  shining  too  brightly  upon  her  face  through  a 
screen  of  azaleas  in  the  window,  she  bade  the  servant 
lower  the  shade  as  though  her  life  had  been  spent  in 
controlling  that  servant  and  that  shade.  But  Gordon, 
as  he  drew  up  a  chair  facing  her,  noticed  that  she 
shrank  a  little  from  his  scrutiny. 

"Would  you  not  rather  sit  here?"  she  asked.,  in 
dicating  a  place  beside  her. 

"  Thanks,"  he  said  coolly ;  "  I  took  this  chair,  with 
my  back  to  the  light,  the  better  to  see  your  face." 

"  Outspoken,  as  usual,"  she  answered,  wincing  a  lit 
tle,  but  holding  her  head  up  bravely,  as  she  fronted 
him. 

"  Yes";  I  rarely  lose  time  when  I  see  my  point,  and 
have  an  opportunity  to  go  to  it  direct." 

"  Dear  me !  what  is  it  you  want  to  say  to  me  ? " 
she  exclaimed.  "When  I  received  your  note,  and 
made  a  point  of  meeting  its  request,  I  was  plunged 
into  agreeable  curiosity." 

"  I  have  not  often  had  a  visit  to  make  that  cost  me 
so  much  hesitation  —  so  much  genuine  regret,"  he 
said,  with  a  touch  of  honest  feeling  in  his  voice. 

"  More  and  more  tragic,"  she  replied,  smiling  plea 
santly,  "  when  I  consider  howr  chary  you  have  taken 
pains  to  be  of  your  visits,  in  general." 

"Madame  Stauffer,  I  am  sorry  for  you,"  he  went 
on  bluntly.  "  But  when  you  took  up  your  abode  in 
this  house,  you  must  have  counted  upon  the  risk  you 
ran." 

"  Wait,"  said  Sara,  shutting  her  eyes.  She  wanted 
one  moment  alone  with  her  own  thoughts. 

She  knew,  now,  that  he  had  found  out  that  in  her 


116  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

life  which  she  had  desired  above  all  things  to  con 
ceal  ;  and  the  knowledge  that  from  him  the  blow  of 
exposure  was  to  come  was  more  than  she  could  bear. 

"I  see  that  you  understand  me/'  said  the  quiet, 
persistent  voice. 

"So  it  was  for  this  you  wished  to  see  me  alone," 
she  cried  bitterly.  "  I  —  blind  fool — who  fancied  that 
it  was,  perhaps,  for  other  things;  I,  who  dreamed 
there  could  be  such  a  being  as  a  big-hearted,  unsel 
fish  man  that,  seeing  the  struggle  of  a  woman  against 
fate,  might  stretch  out  over  her  the  mantle  of  his 
generosity — his  pity — his — but  no — no  !  They  are 
all  alike.  Cruel,  implacable,  they  ruin  and  they 
condemn." 

"  I  cannot  imagine  why  you  use  these  very  inap 
propriate  words  to  me,"  he  said. 

"  Oh,  you  do  not  ?  You  refuse  to  see  what  is  near 
you, — what  might  have  been  so  much  to  you, — what 
would  have  made  of  your  life  one  long  brilliant  ca 
reer  of  success  over  your  fellow-men?  How  could 
you  fancy — a  man  born  to  be  a  ruler  —  that  a  wife 
like  Marion  Irving,  a  cold,  half-developed  dreamer, 
could  satisfy  the  needs  of  your  nature  —  inspire  you 
to  great  deeds  ? n 

"It  is  I  who  am  dreaming,  or  else  you  are  mad 
that  you  say,  or  I  think  you  say,  things  like  this  to 
me." 

"Why  should  I  not  say  them  to  you,  as  well  as 
you  say  them  to  another,  or  to  me  ?  Are  we  not 
equal  souls ! " 

"  I  think  not,"  he  continued,  looking  down  upon 
her  with  a  look  that  left  her  no  rag  of  delusion  as 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  117 

to  his  feeling  toward  her.  "I  beg  your  pardon  if  I 
seem  brutal.  But  I  cannot  delay  what  I  came  here 
to  say.  I  don't  need  to  go  into  particulars.  For 
some  time  past  I  have  been  engaged  in  satisfying 
certain  doubts  of  mine  about  you,  and  I  have  suc 
ceeded.  There  is  not  in  my  mind  a  shadow  of  un 
certainty  as  to  the  fact  that  you  must  not  remain  a 
day  longer  under  this  roof." 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  them?"  she  said  in  a  low, 
strained  voice  he  hardly  recognized. 

"  "Why  need  I  tell  them  ?    Why  need  I  so  pain  her  ? " 

"Her — her!  it's  all  for  her,"  she  cried  desperately. 
"For  her  —  you  have  done  me  this  wrong." 

"If  you  wish  me  to  say  it,  knowing  your  past, 
what  in  the  world  else  could  I  have  done  ? " 

"How  came  you  to  set  out  in  your  noble  quest 
for  information  about  my  past?" 

"Because,  from  the  first,  I  felt  that  somebody 
should  know,  better  than  anybody  did  know,  who 
it  was  that  had  been  admitted  into  the  most  sacred 
confidences  of  Marion  Irving's  life,  to  influence  her 
thought  and  actions.  I  inquired  from  your  late  em 
ployers  at  the  college.  They  referred  me  to  some 
people  in  Chicago.  The  track  ended  there.  "When 
you  were  next  heard  of  you  were  in  the  South,  under 
your  present  name  —  to  which  you  have  no  lawful 
right" 

""Well,  granted  that  I  went  away  with  Dr.  Stauf- 
fer,  who  had  persuaded  me  to  live  according  to  his 
theories.  I  was  deluded  by  a  specious  fanatic,  a  bril 
liant  madman-.  I  believed  in  him ;  he  almost  broke 
my  heart  and  spirit ;  but  he  is  dead.  The  world  was 

8* 


118  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

all  before  me,  the  future  long  in  which  to  live  down 
six  months  of  folly." 

"  People  of  my  way  of  thinking  have  a  harsher 
name  for  it,"  he  said. 

"  You  are  pitiless  !  But  it  is  over,  I  tell  you.  No 
one  knows,  unless  you  choose  to  publish  it.  Why  is 
not  the  world  wide  enough  for  you  and  me  ?  " 

"  It  is  wide  enough,  and  I  am  not  without  pity.  If 
you  go  from  here  at  once,  to-morrow  afternoon,  as 
soon  as  you  can  make  arrangements  to  do  so  that 
will  not  arouse  suspicion  in  our  friends ;  if  you  will 
promise  me  to  hold  no  future  communication  with 
Marion  or  her  father,  I  shall  see  that  you  suffer  no 
material  loss." 

"  It  needed  only  this ! "  she  cried,  bursting  into  tears. 

Gordon  walked  up  and  down  the  room  till  she  had 
spent  the  first  force  of  her  emotion.  The  experience 
thus  coming  to  him  of  a  nature  divided  against  itself, 
in  which  an  unconquerable  passion  for  him  had  arisen 
to  bear  down  all  obstacles  presented  by  her  alleged 
principles  of  independence,  was  interesting  enough  to 
be  dangerous  to  his  resolution.  He  returned  to  her 
side,  and  stood  there  for  a  moment  hesitating. 

"  You  must  know  it  is  my  desire  to  spare  you  any 
thing  more  than  it  is  absolutely  needful  for  mefto  in 
flict  —  that  makes  me  propose  what  so  wounds  you," 
he  said  finally.  "In  leaving  here,  you  will  be  less 
than  ever  prepared  to  battle  with  the  hardships  of 
the  world.  You  must  let  me  help  you  financially  —  as 
a  loan  —  as  you  will ;  you  must  not  refuse  me." 

She  had  ceased  sobbing,  and  now  sprang  up  beside 
him,  and  laid  her  hand  upon  his  arm. 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  119 

"  You  do  care,  then  ?     You  care,  even  a  little  bit." 

"I  care?  Certainly.  For  what  do  you  take 
me?" 

"  Enough  to  give  me  a  little  longer  time  ? "  she 
pleaded  eagerly,  her  face  kindling. 

Her  eyes  sought  his  with  magnetic  influence.  If 
ever  in  her  life,  she  was  under  the  spell  of  a  genuine 
feeling. 

As  they  stood  so,  together,  the  door  of  the  draw 
ing-room  opened,  and  Marion  came  in.  Sara,  who 
must  have  known  who  the  intruder  was,  did  not  alter 
her  position  by  a  hair's  breadth.  It  was  Gordon  who 
started  violently  away  from  her,  and  went  over  to 
take  Marion  by  the  hand. 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  said  Marion,  a  shade  paler. 

Then  Sara,  for  a  moment  unbalanced,  sent  a  look 
of  swift  appeal  to  Gordon.  But  the  sight  of  Marion 
had  brushed  all  cobwebs  from  the  man's  brain.  He 
saw  the  edge  of  the  chasm  he  had  grazed  in  passing. 
He  stood  erect,  fearless,  unmerciful — a  righteous 
judge. 

"  Your  friend  has  been  telling  me,  Marion,  that  to 
morrow  she  must  leave  you,"  he  said  distinctly,  and 
without  a  tremor  in  his  voice. 

"  To-morrow  '?  "  echoed  Marion,  without  moving  to 
ward  Sara. 

"  To-morrow  afternoon,  I  think  you  said,  Madame 
Stauffer  ?  If  there  is  anything  I  can  do  to  assist  you 
in  your  preparations  for  departure,  you  will  command 
me?" 

Sara  Stauffer  did  not  answer  him.  Turning  swiftly, 
she  swept  by  the  two,  and  left  them  alone  together. 


120  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  What  does  this  mean  ? "  again  asked  Marion. 

"Marion,  you  trust  me!"  he  answered,  trying  to 
take  her  hand,  which  she  withdrew. 

"  I  have  had  a  shock,"  she  said  mechanically,  going 
over  to  drop  into  a  seat  by  the  fire. 

Gordon  recognized  that  she  would  be  relieved  by 
his  absence,  but  he  could  not  go  without  one  other 
word. 

"Marion,"  he  said,  following  her  that  he  might 
speak  in  a  low  tone.  "  It 's  a  pity  you  came  in  when 
you  did,  and  it 's  a  double  pity  I  can't  explain  to  you 
what  you  naturally  can't  understand.  But  I  cannot. 
My  lips  are  sealed.  I  have  got  to  throw  myself  upon 
all  the  kind  feeling  you  ever  had  for  me.  This  is  a 
pretty  rough  trick  Fortune  has  played  me.  Surely 
we  've  known  each  other  long  enough  and  well  enough 
for  you  to  believe  me,  without  question,  when  I  say 
there  has  been  nothing  between  me  and  that  woman 
you  might  not  know,  if  you  could  know  —  but  you 
can't.  She  is  going  out  of  your  life  to-morrow,  as 
suddenly  as  she  came  into  it.  Be  kind  to  her,  for  she 
needs  you.  But  for  God's  sake,  believe  me  —  and 
don't  try  to  keep  her  in  this  house." 

"The  best  kindness  to  me,  just  now,  would  be  to 
leave  me,"  the  girl  said;  and  he  could  see  that  she 
spoke  the  truth.  With  an  inarticulate  exclama 
tion,  driven  from  him  by  his  thought  of  her  vigil, 
soon  to  come,  with  a  tremendous  disillusion,  he  left 
her. 

For  the  remainder  of  the  day  he  had,  about  the 
whole  matter,  a  defeated  and  miserable  feeling  that 
gave  him  a  sleepless  night.  The  darkness  into  which 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  121 

his  wide-open  eyes  stared  was  peopled  for  him  by 
visions  of  possibilities  arising  out  of  his  interference, 
and  the  luckless  turn  it  had  taken.  The  scene  with 
Sara,  upon  which  Marion  had  come  so  inopportunely, 
now  took  on  a  complexion  most  unpleasant.  What 
use  might  not  that  exquisitely  artful  person  (of  whose 
passion  for  him,  however,  it  did  not  occur  to  his 
masculine  mind  to  doubt  the  sincerity)  make  of  the 
situation  Marion  had  discovered,  further  to  poison 
Marion's  mind  ?  What  would  it  avail  him  to  get  rid 
of  Sara,  if  he  was  to  lose  Marion  in  a  way  far  worse 
than  by  the  breaking  of  their  late  engagement  ?  And 
whose  part  would  the  judge  take  in  the  matter — the 
judge  who,  having  carried  his  point  in  offering  to 
Madame  Stauffer  a  salary  as  secretary  for  him  and 
companion  for  his  daughter,  had  found  himself  so 
evidently  comfortable  and  at  ease  in  the  new  relation  ? 

The  night,  that  brings  counsel,  did  not  answer  any 
of  these  questions  to  Gordon's  satisfaction.  He  arose 
jaded  and  out  of  humor;  went  down-town  to  his 
affairs ;  then  into  court,  to  be  disgusted  with  his  own 
performance  in  a  particularly  interesting  case ;  and, 
on  reaching  his  rooms  to  dress  for  dinner,  found,  cool 
ing  his  little  heels  in  the  passageway  outside  his  door, 
a  messenger  boy,  bearing  a  note,  for  which  he  was 
instructed  to  await  the  answer. 

The  envelop,  addressed  in  Marion's  handwriting, 
excited  so  lively  a  commotion  in  Gordon's  breast  that 
he  struck  three  matches  before  he  could  light  the 
gas.  His  hand  trembled  as  he  tore  the  note  open. 
But  all  minor  sensations  of  any  description  were 
destined  to  be  swept  away  in  a  flood  of  angry  aston- 


122  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

ishment  when  his. mind  grasped  the  actual  meaning 
of  the  words  he  read. 

Come  to  me  if  you  can.  I  must  have  advice,  and  I  have  no 
one  to  whom  to  turn.  My  father  married  her  to-day  at  twelve  ; 
and  they  have  gone  away  on  a  wedding-journey.  Of  this  I  have 
just  been  informed  by  letter. 

Gordon,  having  enlisted  his  good  Aunt  Effie  to  go 
with  him  to  Marion,  sat  that  evening  in  the  library 
of  Judge  Irving's  house,  turning  over  and  over  in  his 
hand  a  letter.  It  was  from  Sara,  and  read  : 

It  is  better  so,  my  darling  Marion.  When  I  saw  last  night 
your  confusion  and  distress  at  the  announcement  of  my  inten 
tion  to  leave  to-day, — when  you  did  not  come  near  me  once 
during  my  packing  this  morning, — I  was  so  grieved  at  the  mis 
understanding — I  longed,  a  thousand  times  over,  to  tell  you 
my  secret,  and  to  weep  it  out  upon  your  breast.  But  your  fa 
ther's  wishes — henceforth  the  law  of  my  life — were  inflexible. 
He  said  that  in  a  position  like  ours  nothing  would  be  gained  by 
previous  discussion  of  our  intention.  During  my  talk  last  night 
with  him  in  the  library,  when  you  were  shut  up  in  your  room, 
he  exacted  from  me  a  promise  to  put  our  plan — for  which  I 
may  tell  you  he  has  for  some  time  had  all  the  preliminaries 
arranged — into  execution  before  speaking  of  it  to  you.  Ah ! 
my  Marion,  if  you  are  inclined  to'  blame  me,  think  what  you  — 
he — and  your  dear  home  have  been  to  the  friendless  stranger, 
and  say  whether  I  could  resist  making  them  my  own.  When, 
after  a  few  days'  absence,  we  come  back  to  you,  may  I  not 
count  upon  a  renewal  of  our  sweet  tie,  our  friendship,  now  to 
be  one  for  life  ?  May  not  our  tastes,  our  aims,  our  energies, 
work  together  more  closely  than  before  ?  Consider,  as  I  have, 
that  in  your  isolated  position  you  need  me  as  much  as  I  need 
you.  I  shall  be  so  kind,  so  tender,  your  life  will  be  smoothed  in 
many  respects,  I  promise.  Let  nothing  drive  from  your  heart 
one  who,  whatever  comes,  will  ever  hold  you  close  in  hers ! 

Your  SARA. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  123 

While  the  two  women,  up  in  Marion's  room,  were 
discussing  the  matter  in  the  aspect  it  would  present 
to  friends  and  society  at  large,  Gordon  felt  the  sting 
of  his  defeat  to  be  more  poignant,  the  more  he  con 
templated  its  various  faces  known  only  to  himself. 
That  Sara  had  effected  her  victory  over  him  by  a 
dazzling  swoop,  he  had  reluctantly  to  confess.  For 
so  many  weeks  he  had  carried  about  with  him  the 
uncomfortable  knowledge  of  her  interest  in  himself 
far  beyond  an  ordinary  interest,  he  had  entirely 
ceased  to  apprehend  danger  from  the  direction  in 
which  it  had  finally  and  decisively  come.  He  now 
cursed  himself  as  an  infatuated  idiot  not  to  have 
suspecte'd  that  this  adventuress  was  well  equipped 
at  every  point;  that,  failing  her  schemes  upon  him, 
she  would  immediately  resort  to  the  act  that  had 
placed  her  in  sacred  safety  forever,  beyond  the  reach 
of  his  knowledge  of  her  past.  That,  after  all,  was 
the  rub.  To  save  Marion  and  Marion's  name  from 
the  exposure  of  Sara  Stauffer's  past,  he  would  hence 
forth  have  to  spend  his  best  efforts  in  concealing  it. 
In  all  human  probability  the  question,  unless  he 
brought  it  up,  would  never  present  itself  to  threaten 
the  peace  of  the  Irving  household.  His  investigation 
of  the  facts,  known  to  few,  and  carefully  concealed, 
had  been  made  with  difficulty ;  and  even  those  from 
whom  he  had  procured  information  did  not  suspect 
his  object.  Never  did  an  ingenious  piece  of  detective 
work  reward  its  contriver  with  such  a  thankless  end 
ing.  With  all  his  heart  he  wished  himself  free  of 
the  secret  5  and  then  cast  about  him  for  a  means  of 
meeting  a  demand  for  explanation  sure  to  come  from 
Marion. 


124  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  You  are  still  here,  Alec  ? "  said  Marion,  entering 
the  room.  "I  fancied  you  would  stay  till  I  could 
have  a  talk  alone  with  you.  It  was  a  kind  thought 
to  bring  your  Aunt  Effie  to  me,  and,  whatever  comes, 
I  thank  you  for  it." 

"  Whatever  comes ! "  Gordon,  who  had  risen  to  meet 
her,  stood  while  she  sat  down.  He  had  a  queer  feel 
ing  of  complicity  in  the  wrong  that,  in  a  few  hours, 
had  changed  her  to  a  woman  of  marble,  with  bright, 
glittering  eyes  in  which  there  were  no  tears.  He 
waited.  For  the  life  of  him  he  could  not  speak. 

"  When  you  came  here  yesterday,  am  I  wrong  in 
thinking  it  was  by  appointment  with  —  her  f  "  she 
said. 

"I  had  written  asking  her  to  receive  me,  and  she 
had  fixed  that  hour." 

"  Had  you  then  any  suspicion  of  her  intentions  to 
do  what  she  has  done?" 

"  None.  It  came  upon  me  like  a  thunder-clap,"  he 
said  frankly. 

"And  yet,  when  I  came  into  the  room,  there  was 
something  between  you,  far  out  of  the  common,"  she 
went  on,  trying  to  weigh  her  words.  "  If  it  was  not 
about  my  father,  ifc  must  have  been — on  your  own  ac 
count,"  she  burst  out,  losing  her  self-possession.  "  Oh  ! 
what  is  the  hateful  mystery?  Either  she  is  a  mira 
cle  of  deceit,  or  you — you,  the  one  it  is  my  first 
impulse  to  trust  and  believe  in — have  been  hiding 
something  from  me.  Alec,  when  I  found  myself  alone 
to-day,  in  my  distraction  I  wrote  first  to  you.  As  soon 
as  I  had  sent  the  message,  I  remembered  the  circum 
stance  of  yesterday,  and  I  wanted  to  recall  the  note. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  125 

I  think  if  it  had  not  occurred  to  you  to  bring  your 
Aunt  Effie  with  you,  I  should  have  asked  to  be  ex 
cused  when  you  came.  And  yet,  how  can  I  believe 
you  are  other  than  I  have  always  known  you — inca 
pable  of  betraying  our  friendship  ? " 

"  You  are  right,  Marion.  I  am  incapable  of  betray 
ing  our  friendship,"  he  said,  greatly  touched.  "  If  ever 
in  my  life  I  wanted  to  do  anything,  it  is  at  this  minute 
to  give  you  the  fullest  possible  explanation  of  what 
you  ask.  But  it  is  simply  impossible.  For  myself, 
you  might  read  every  thought  of  my  heart ;  but  unless 
you  can  trust  me,  I  must  go  away  and  leave  you,  and 
bear,  as  I  can,  the  misfortune  of  the  accident  that  has 
placed  me  in  this  position." 

"  Then  I  will  alter  the  form  of  my  question,"  she 
said,  after  thinking  for  a  time.  u  Tell  me  what  you 
would  counsel  me  to  do.  Is  there  known  to  you  any 
reason,  apart  from  her  duplicity  to  me,  why  I  may 
not  accept  this  woman  as  my  father's  wife,  live  under 
the  same  roof  with  her,  put  the  best  face  before  the 
world  upon  the  situation?" 

She  gazed  at  him  steadily.  The  color  rose  into 
Gordon's  face.  He  turned  aside,  and  walked  to  the 
far  end  of  the  room  and  looked  through  the  window 
into  the  night. 

"  I  am  answered,"  said  Marion,  drearily. 

"Marion,  you  are  putting  me  in  a  position  that 
is  intolerable,"  he  exclaimed,  returning  to  her  side. 
"  May  I  not  beg  you,  in  justice  to  me,  to  withdraw 
that  question?  Consider  that  you  are  asking  me 
about  your  father's  wife." 

"  Then  you  do  think  that  it  is  my  duty  to  receive 


126  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

her  as  such  ? "  she  cried,  pathetically  eager,  it  seemed 
to  him,  to  cling  to  her  last  illusion.  "  Oh,  Alec ! 
Hard  as  I  may  seem,  I  am  almost  desperate.  I  want 
to  forgive,  I  want  to  forget.  I  want  to  live  down  the 
cruel  doubts  I  have  had  of  her,  and  the  constant  feel 
ing  I  have  that  she  has  used  me,  and  everything 
around  me,  for  her  own  purposes.  But  I  can't.  I 
will  not  attempt  to  struggle,  if  I  must  end  by  dis 
astrous  failure.  There  is  only  one  way  to  meet  the 
crisis.  I  must  go  out  of  this  house.  I  cannot  await 
them  here." 

"Could  you  not  come  to  me,  Marion?"  he  said 
tenderly. 

"  No,  no,  not  that !  Don't  make  me  sorry  I  sent  for 
you  in  my  overpowering  trouble." 

Gordon  started  as  if  he  had  been  stung. 

"  I  did  not  mean  to  hurt  you,"  she  added  quickly. 
"  But  you  must  see  I  am  in  no  condition  to  talk  of 
what  I  have  just  succeeded  in  putting  out  of  my 
thoughts.  It  is  not  that  I  do  not  believe  in  you.  I 
do;  and  I  ask  your  pardon  for  a  doubt  born  of  ex 
traordinary  circumstances." 

"  I  believe  you  never  loved  me,"  he  said,  cut  by  her 
measured  tone. 

"At  any  rate,  I  thought  so  once,"  she  returned, 
covering  her  eyes  wearily  with  her  hand,  as  she  rested 
her  elbow  on  the  table.  "  Since  we  have  been  parted, 
I  have  almost  thought  I  was  mistaken;  there  have 
seemed  to  be  things  so  much  more  incumbent  upon 
me  than  loving.  In  place  of  the  heart  I  used  to  have, 
there  is  now  a  spot  sealed  under  a  stone.  The  person 
who  has  come  nearest  to  touching  it  is  dear  Miss 


A   BACHELOR   MAID  127 

Effie  Gordon;  but  I  arn  afraid  even  she  will  be 
discouraged." 

"  You  will  let  Aunt  Effie  take  charge  of  you  ? "  he 
said,  catching  at  a  straw. 

"  Your  aunt?  Your  nearest  relative  ?  I  think  not. 
It  would  only  complicate  matters.  No,  she  sees  that, 
as  I  do;  and  in  the  last  hour  she  has  helped  me  to 
come  to  a  decision  about  my  future.  Feeling  as  I  do, 
I  cannot  stay  here  till  they  return.  I  shall  find  a 
place  to  go  to ;  and,  trust  me,  I  shall  do  nothing  that 
either  you  or  Miss  Effie  would  disapprove  of.  If  you 
choose,  I  will  promise  to  be  guided  by  her  advice  in 
everything  about  the  change.  But  as,  henceforth,  I 
am  to  live  to  myself,  I  think  I  might  begin  now  to  act 
independently.  A  woman  of  twenty-five  is  no  child, 
Alec.  Don't  look  at  me  with  such  doubtful  eyes,  be 
cause  I  am  going  out  to  meet  the  world." 

Insensibly,  she  had  fallen  into  the  old  attitude  of 
appealing  to  his  judgment. 

"What,  in  God's  name,  do  you  know  about  the 
world!"  he  burst  out  irrepressibly. 

"  It  is  time  that  I  should,  then,"  she  said,  with  an 
answering  spark  of  spirit.  "  I  am  a  thousand  times 
better  equipped  in  means  and  education  than  most  of 
the  other  women  who  are  forced  into  the  conflict  by 
necessity.  Is  it  not  my  plain  duty  to  correct  the 
defects  of  my  environment?" 

Gordon  looked  about  the  room,  to  whose  interior  of 
mellow  beauty  no  sound  of  the  street  penetrated. 

"  And  you,  who  have  lived  all  your  sheltered  life  in 
this,"  he  said,  "  think  you  can  step  outside  of  it,  alone, 
without  definite  aims,  with  no  protection?  Have  you 


128  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

ever  fancied  what  it  would  be  to  be  left  in  the  street 
at  midnight,  unable  to  get  within  your  own  door  ? 
The  helplessness  of  woman  when  she  is  bereft  of  the 
shield  of  conventionality  is  something  you  never  have 
had  to  contemplate,  and  that  I  cannot  contemplate 
for  you." 

"What,  then,  do  you  propose  for  me,  Alec?"  she 
said  quietly. 

Gordon  was  silent. 

"  Not  a  residence  under  the  roof  of  either  of  my 
uncles,  even  if  their  wives  would  have  me?  I  can 
hardly  go  back  to  college  —  though,  indeed,  I  have 
thought  of  teaching  there,  if  they  would  make  a  place 
for  me.  In  the  seven  days'  wonder  this  affair  of  my 
father's  is  going  to  make,  surely  the  best  thing  I  can 
do  is  to  keep  out  of  sight  and  chance  of  comment. 
Miss  Effie  says  she  will  help  me  when  I  have  deter 
mined —  and  since  we  have  been  talking  I  have  de 
termined —  to  make  a  home  for  myself." 

Gordon  looked  at  her  in  surprise.  In  spite  of  the 
marks  of  deep  distress  upon  her  face,  it  had  been 
lighted  from  within  by  the  new  flame  of  resolution 
that  transfigured  her. 

Miss  Effie,  coming  in,  saw  also  the  expression  of 
Marion's  countenance,  and,  going  up  to  her  briskly, 
put  a  kind  arm  around  the  girl's  shoulders. 

"Courage,  my  dear!"  the  old  maid  said  in  her 
hearty  voice.  "  The  hardest  thing  in  all  this  world  is 
to  be  true  to  oneself.  If  I  don't  mistake,  you  have 
been  asking  this  boy  of  mine  the  question  why  you 
may  not  belong  to  yourself,  and  perhaps  he  has  not 
been  able  to  answer  you.  What  you  are  striving  for 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  129 

is  neither  unwomanly  nor  revolutionary ;  it  is  a  thou 
sand  times  better  for  you  to  work  out  your  own  ex 
periment  in  your  own  way  than  to  let  yourself  be 
cramped  and  choked  by  mere  conventionality.  And, 
after  all,  who  knows  but  the  opportunity  that  has 
come  to  you  in  this  unwelcome  fashion  may  prove 
a  blessing  in  disguise  ? " 

"  You  will  excuse  me  from  discussing  it  further," 
Gordon  said  stiffly.  Just  now  he  was  irritated  against 
all  the  world,  including  honest  Aunt  Effie ;  and  his 
only  idea  of  an  appropriate  exit  from  the  situation 
was  an  exit  from  the  house. 

After  this,  he  would  let  the  women  manage  affairs 
for  themselves;  and  when  Marion  should  want  him 
again,  she  must  ask  twice  before  he  would  adventure 
himself  to  a  like  experience.  Even  his  dismay  at  the 
fate  that  had  overtaken  his  old  friend,  the  judge,  was 
subordinated  to  the  thought  that  Marion  was  now 
free  to  roam  unchecked  in  the  dangerous  field  of 
modern  feminine  independence. 


VII 


EXT  morning,  Marion,  in  her  turn, 
awoke  out  of  a  dull  and  troubled 
sleep,  to  cogitate  her  new  situation 
in  the  chill  gray  of  early  daylight, 
so  depressing  to  resolutions  of  the 
night  before.  To  Miss  Effle,  who 
had  offered  to  remain  with  her,  she  had  said  no — 
that  it  was  better  at  once  to  attempt  the  solitude 
henceforth  her  portion  in  life.  And  Miss  Effie,  ten 
der,  if  a  trifle  gruff  in  voice,  had  patted  her  on  the 
shoulder,  told  her  that  on  the  whole  she  was  right, 
and,  declining  to  have  a  cab  or  servant,  had  trotted 
off  alone  in  the  darkness,  intending  to  catch  a  street 
car  going  west. 

Marion,  as  she  dwelt  on  the  old  maid's  sterling 
goodness,  her  clear  common  sense,  her  happiness  in 
her  own  beliefs,  yet  had  a  little  shiver  of  distaste  at  a 
grotesque  dread  thrusting  itself  upon  her,  that  she, 
Marion,  might  one  day  come  to  be  of  the  same  type. 
Whilst  combing  her  hair,  the  girl  surveyed  in  her 
mirror  her  stately  shape  and  clear  soft  coloring,  and 
wondered  if  she  ought  to  wish  they  would  never 
know  transformation  into  the  square  dimensions, 
drab  tints,  and  tanned  surfaces  with  which  Miss  Effie 

130 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  131 

faced  the  realities  of  life.  And  yet  even  Miss  Effie, 
provided  by  nature  with  a  shield  against  contact 
with  the  wicked  world,  had  the  walls  of  a  home 
behind  which  to  intrench  herself —  an  unimpeachable 
background  in  those  faded  pastels,  the  sisters ;  while 
Marion,  having  none  of  these,  must  go  on  her  lonely 
way,  and  look  not  back  or  around  her. 

It  would  have  been  superhuman  indeed,  if,  in  the 
first  moment  of  reaction  after  great  excitement  and 
stern  resolve,  Marion's  thoughts  had  not  dwelt  upon 
Alec  Gordon.  As  she  lay  waiting  for  sounds  of 
awakening  life  about  the  house,  for  the  soft  noise  of 
the  housemaid's  brushes  in  the  hall  outside  her  door, 
for  the  glimmering  casemate  to  be  defined  upon  the 
full  light  of  outer  day,  her  soul  seemed  to  be  floating 
afar  in  a  world  void  of  substance,  instinctively  seeking 
a  mate  with  which  it  could  blend  and  be  at  rest.  This, 
was  no  doubt  a  capital  weakness,  but  Marion,  in  that 
hour  betwixt  sleep  and  waking,  was  not  fully  respon 
sible.  As  she  turned  on  her  weary  pillow,  trying 
to  banish  these  thoughts  in  sleep,  again  and  again 
the  image  of  Gordon  putting  aside  his  pride  in  the 
tender  burst  of  pleading  that  she  would  bring  all  her 
troubles  to  him,  with  him  share  the  odium  that  had 
been  thrust  upon  her,  returned  with  haunting  persis 
tence.  How  simple  a  process,  how  natural  and  right 
it  then  appeared  to  her,  to  throw  aside  her  dream  of 
independence,  put  her  hand  in  that  of  this  true  and 
manly  fellow,  and  say  to  him  :  "  Where  thou  goest,  I 
go.  Thine  is  mine,  the  world  before  us  is  ours  to 
meet  for  good  or  ill,  to  live  together  according  to 
God's  holy  ordinance  as  man  and  wife." 


132  A   BACHELOE  MAID 

God's  holy  ordinance!  What  did  that  mean  —  the 
words  she  had  so  often  heard  over  the  heads  of  couples 
standing  at  the  altar?  If  there  were  anything  in  re 
ligion,  was  it  not  the  first  injunction  of  the  Creator  to 
created  man  and  woman,  to  blend  their  interests  in 
one  ?  If  there  were  anything  in  law  and  order  of 
human  society,  was  it  not  the  first  requisite  that  the 
joint  life  of  man  and  woman  should  be  lived  as  or 
dained,  that  their  mutual  love  might  remain  immortal 
in  a  perishable  world  ? 

Somehow  or  other,  this  was  a  sweet  and  sustaining 
thought.  All  her  other  ideas  of  living  for  champion 
ship  of  the  unaccorded  rights  of  her  own  sex  faded 
away  in  the  light  of  its  steady  radiance.  The  fond 
fancies  of  girlhood  about  wifehood,  hitherto  dormant 
in  Marion,  trooped  up  to  surround  the  image  of  the 
lover  she  had  cast  away. 

When  the  maid  came  in,  and  Marion,  starting,  saw 
upon  the  woman's  face  the  ill-concealed  curiosity  of 
her  order  about  her  young  lady's  changed  prospects, 
she  was  disagreeably  surprised.  The  hard  reality  of 
her  actual  lot  had  been,  during  this  last  hour  of 
reverie,  so  happily  remote !  She  had  had  such  lovely 
things  to  think  of! 

Dismissing  the  woman,  whose  eagerness  for  items 
to  discuss  among  her  fellows  below-stairs  disgusted 
Marion,  she  went  through  the  various  stages  of  her 
toilet,  still  strangely  under  the  influence  of  the  re 
bound  in  favor  of  Gordon.  She  recalled  his  trying 
position  under  her  interrogatory,  his  self-control,  his 
open  statement  that  unless  she  could  trust  him  he 
must  go  away  without  her  trust,  and  stand  by  the 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  133 

consequences  of  his  inability  to  make  due  explanation. 
Her  fleeting  suspicion  that  he  had  been  engaged  in 
some  affair  of  the  heart  with  Sara  now  seemed  to  her 
to  have  been  a  monstrous  injustice.  Whatever  the 
understanding  between  them,  Marion  would  never  be 
lieve  that  Gordon's  attitude  in  the  matter  was  not 
one  of  fidelity  to  herself,  although  many  evidences  of 
Sara's  fancy  for  the  handsome  young  man  now  arose 
to  convict  Madame  Stauffer  of  double  treachery  in 
her  hasty  marriage  with  the  judge. 

On  Sara's  side  all  was  dark,  shifty,  perfidious.  On 
Gordon's,  Marion  saw  only  his  native  endowment  of 
manly  virtue,  strengthened  by  a  great  love  for  her, 
a  love  she  now  knew  she  never  had  deserved.  The 
fine  balance  of  wits  and  judgment  in  his  character, 
his  refusal  ever  to  be  moved  to  the  right  or  left 
against  their  dictates,  were  admirable  in  her  sight. 
Nothing  like  them  was  observable  in  her  retrospect 
of  the  brilliant  inconsistencies  of  her  later  friend  and 
guide,  who  had  ended  by  inflicting  on  her  that  most 
cruel  wound. 

In  this  mood,  she  went  down  into  her  morning- 
room  to  find  on  the  table  a  note  from  Gordon, 
running  as  follows: 

I  cannot  but  hope,  my  dear  Marion,  that  your  afterthought 
of  our  conversation  will  confirm  you  in  your  generous  promise 
to  believe  me  without  specific  explanation  of  my  share  in  the 
crushing  blow  that  God  knows  I  never  dreamed  would  fall  on 
you.  If  I  bungled,  it  was  hoping  to  be  of  use  to  you.  But 
consideration  of  the  affair,  and,  above  all,  of  your  present 
attitude  to  me,  proves  that  I  am  wiser  in  not  again  offering  to 
approach  you  personally.  In  whatever  I  can  serve  you  as  a 
friend,  as  a  brother,  as  one  who  has  received  every  kindness 


134  A  BACHELOE  MAID 

from  your  father  and  yourself,  command  me  always.  A  letter 
from  your  father,  which  I  found  on  returning  home  last  night, 
makes  such  explanation  of  his  act  as  he  thinks  needful.  He 
•asks  me  to  convey  it  to  you,  and  I  do  so.  While  I  cannot,  in 
conscience,  advise  you  to  reconsider  your  intention  not  to 
remain  under  their  roof,  I  am  still  gravely  anxious  as  to  what 
other  course  you  will  pursue.  I  beg  of  you  to  be  guided  in  all 
things  by  my  aunt,  who  will  counsel  you  as  I  could  not.  If  I 
do  not  again  take  occasion  to  say  so,  believe  always  in  my 
interest  and  solicitude  for  your  welfare ;  count  upon  me  not  as 
the  lover  who  has  failed  to  win  you  and  accepts  his  fate, —  and 
to  whom  wisdom  suggests  absence  from  you  as  the  only  means 
of  enabling  his  judgment  to  act  in  your  behalf, — but  as,  in  the 

full  sense,  your  friend  and  servant, 

ALEXANDER  GORDON. 

Marion  dropped  this  letter  in  her  lap. 

It  was  as  if  a  needle-bath  had  played  upon  her 
warm  feelings. 

Mechanically  she  took  up  the  sheet  of  note-paper  it 
had  inclosed,  in  which  the  bridegroom  of  the  day 
before  had  penciled  a  few  lines  of  palliation  of  his 
sudden  action.  Few  they  were,  and,  naturally,  ineffi 
cient  in  producing  the  desired,  result ;  the  plea  of  a 
vain,  pompous,  self-sufficient  man  under  the  spell  of 
a  folly  old  as  creation  —  determined  to  indulge  him 
self,  and  to  leave  others  to  bear  the  consequence. 

Her  father's  letter  had  upon  Marion  the  salutary 
effect  of  arousing  anew  her  old  resentment  of  in 
justice.  Otherwise  had  she  been  in  great  peril  of 
shedding  mere  womanly  tears  because  her  lover  had 
at  last  gratified  her  by  definitely  leaving  her  to 
herself.  In  a  trice,  the  soft  visions  of  the  early 
hours  of  day  fled  away  from  her  —  now,  indeed,  had 
she  attained  the  summit  of  her  old  ambitions ;  now 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  135 

was  she  free  and  able  to  be  a  law  unto  herself !  And 
Marion,  for  the  first  time  in  all  her  trials,  broke 
down,  and  cried  until  she  could  cry  no  more. 

Miss  Effie,  engaged  with  some  of  her  charities  in 
the  forenoon,  had  promised  to  be  with  her  in  the 
afternoon. 

Marion,  after  regaining  her  self-possession,  was 
employed  in  putting  beneath  the  grate  and  burning 
to  a  crisp  a  newspaper  containing  an  animated 
version  of  the  surprising  marriage  at  such  a  church, 
by  such  a  rector,  of  the  well-known  Mr.  Justice 
Irving  with  his  daughter's  "  governess,"  when  Hilary, 
coming  into  the  room  fresh  from  a  bout  with  a  re 
porter  who  had  called  to  inquire  particulars  of  the 
judge's  family,  brought  Marion  a  card. 

It  was  Mrs.  Romaine's,  and  above  the  name  was 
penciled  an  urgent  request  to  be  received,  if  for  a 
few  minutes  only. 

"  That  hard,  cold,  cynical  woman ! "  said  Marion, 
inwardly.  "  How  she  will  grate  on  me  !  But  still  — 
what  does  it  matter?  I  have  got  to  face  this 
wretched  business,  and  I  may  as  well  begin.  Yes,  I 
will  begin.  If  she  is  hard,  I  will  be  hard.  No  one 
shall  pity  me ! " 

She  went  into  the  drawing-room  to  find  quite 
another  Mrs.  Romaine  than  the  one  to  whom  she 
and  society  had  been  used.  This  woman's  face  was 
not  hard,  and  there  was  genuine  sympathy  in  her 
eyes,  as  she  arose  and  took  Marion's  hand. 

"My  dear,  as  soon  as  I  read  it  in  my  morning's 
paper,  I  ordered  the  carriage,  to  come  to  you,"  she 
said.  "I  felt  as  if  I,  better  than  some  others,  can 


136  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

understand  what  has  been  going  on,  because  I  mis 
trusted  that  person  from  the  day  she  was  at  my 
house  at  luncheon.  But,  Marion,  I  thought  it  was 
Gordon  she  aimed  for, —  and  I  still  think  so, —  if  she 
could  have  got  him.  Don't  think  me  impertinent, — 
I  don't  mean  to  be, —  or  prying,  or  anything.  Don't 
answer  me  unless  you  like,  but  give  me  leave  to  talk 
out  what  's  in  my  mind,  or  heart,  rather  —  if  I  can 
persuade  you  I  have  such  a  commodity  behind  my 
hooks  and  eyes.  You  are  dreadfully  alone  in  the 
world,  you  poor  girl,  and  I  came  to  say  that  if  you 
would  like  to  —  if  you  can't  think  of  anything  better 
for  the  present  —  I  have  plenty  of  room  in  my  house 
for  you  —  or,  better  still,  if  you  want  to  go  away, 
I  will  take  you  anywhere  — Florida,  Bermuda,  Spain, 
Italy  —  all  places  are  the  same  to  me,  and  I  am 
always  glad  to  move  on.  I  have  been  told  you 
have  resources,  independent  of  your  father;  but  don't 
speak  of  expense.  I  have  more  money  than  I  can 
spend,  and  it  is  n't  because  I  want  a  new  sensation 
that  I  ask  you,  though  you  probably  will  think  so — " 

She  stopped  to  draw  breath,  and  Marion  saw  some 
thing  like  tears  come  into  her  eyes,  and  escape  upon 
her  cheeks. 

"  Mrs.  Romaine  —  "  the  girl  began,  gratefully,  her 
heart  kindling  with  a  sudden  pleasant  warmth. 

"Don't  answer  me  yet.  You  '11  say  no,  of  course; 
and  I  hate  to  be  refused  anything.  Think  it  over. 
You  won't  care  to  stay  on  here  —  a  girl  of  your  cut 
of  mind  and  temper,  I  'm  sure ;  and,  on  the  whole, 
the  best  thing  would  be  to  travel.  So,  pray  come 
away  with  me;  and  if  I  'm  trying,  you  may  be  trying, 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  137 

too.  But  I  'm  really  better  than  I  seem.  And,  if 
you  want  to  know  one  reason  why  I  'm  sorry  for 
you  —  it 's  because  I  had  a  baby  once  named  Marion 
—  my  only  girl,  whom  I  loved  passionately.  She  was 
a  wee,  delicate  thing,  that  died  in  my  arms  in  her 
sleep.  I  sometimes  think  my  husband  has  forgotten 
she  was  ever  born ;  he  never  speaks  of  her.  I  believe 
he  thinks  it  a  relief  to  have  had  her  taken.  But  I  don't 
forget.  I  see  her,  in  company,  among  the  other  girls ; 
and  think  that  if  I  were  ever  ill  (which  fortunately 
I  'in  not)  she  would  sit  by  my  bedside,  and  stroke 
my  hand,  and  kiss  my  brow,  and  call  me  'mother.' 
Now,  my  dear,  1 7m  not  given  to  gushing,  any  more 
than  you  are ;  but  if  you  want  me,  take  me,  and 
you  '11  not  regret  it." 

"  If  you  knew  how  empty  the  world  seemed  to  me, 
half  an  hour  since,  of  people  likely  to  make  such  an 
offer,"  said  Marion,  "  you  'd  know  how  truly  I  thank 
you  for  it.  When  I  sat  there  reading  those  wretched 
notices  with  the  head-lines  in  the  newspapers,  about 
my  father's  marriage,  I  felt  utterly  alone." 

"  Gordon  I "  said  the  lady,  eager  interest  perched 
upon  her  brows. 

"You  know,  of  course,  that  our  engagement  has 
been  for  some  time  at  an  end  ?  He  came  last  night, 
and  so  did  dear  Miss  Effie  Gordon ;  but  I  can  hardly 
take  more  than  sympathy  in  words  from  them." 

"  I  thought  so,"  said  Mrs.  Romaine,  triumphantly. 
"  I  considered  all  that,  before  I  came.  Otherwise,  I 
should  perhaps  not  have  ventured  to  offer  myself." 

"  How  good  you  are ! "  cried  Marion,  struck  with 
this  evidence  of,  it  must  be  confessed,  an  unsuspected 


138  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

delicacy.  "But,  indeed,  you  must  not  tempt  me  to 
be  a  coward  and  run  away  from  my  duties  and  obli 
gations  in  New  York.  Nor  must  I  trust  myself  in 
your  home.  You,  who  are  all  for  the  ability  of 
woman  to  meet  crises  in  life  as  bravely  as  any  man 
would  meet  them,  must  not  unnerve  me  at  the  start." 

"Oh,  but,  my  dear,  a  man  under  your  circum 
stances  would  whistle  and  say  a  few  bad  words,  and 
probably  take  a  room  at  his  club  or  a  hotel  till  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  where  to  move  to  —  and  that 
would  be  an  end  of  it.  He  would  not  feel  it  as  you 
do ;  his  nerves  would  not  be  on  edge  at  the  prospect 
of  staying  here  to  welcome  the  happy  couple  home." 

Marion  shivered. 

"As  usual,  my  tongue  goes  too  fast.  No,  my  dear 
girl,  what  I  should  have  advised  would  have  been  for 
you  to  make  up  with  Alec  Gordon,  who,  even  if  he 
does  n't  hit  it  off  with  me,  is  a  rare  fine  fellow— 

"  You  counsel  me  to  marry?"  interposed  Marion, 
surprised. 

This  time  it  was  Mrs.  Romaine's  turn  to  wince. 

"Did  nobody  ever  tell  you  that  in  some  far  pre 
historic  time  I  was  in  love  with  my  husband  ? "  she 
said  carelessly.  "  Well,  I  was.  I  used  to  go  to  after 
noon  services  in  Lent  and  pray  for  that  love  to  last, 
because  the  sensation  was  so  much  to  my  taste.  I 
used  to  have  ecstatic  feelings  when  his  foot  was  on 
the  stair,  and  I  sat  sewing  little  baby-clothes.  We 
lived  in  a  plainish  way  then ;  three  dollars  spent  in 
two  theater-tickets  was  a  tremendous  outlay ;  and 
we  walked  out  to  dinners  —  I  tucking  up  the  train 
of  my  best  gown  under  a  long  cloak,  and  laughing 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  139 

if  the  wind  snatched  it  away  from  me  at  the  corners 
and  whipped  it  around  my  feet.  Then  he  grew 
richer,  and  we  broadened  the  borders  of  our  phylac 
tery,  and  then  —  how  —  when  —  dear  knows  if  I  can 
remember — we  grew  farther  and  farther  away  from 
each  other.  Now,  when  he  is  at  home,  I  am  aware 
of  it  because  he  is  there  behind  a  newspaper,  but 
that  is  all !  When  our  lips  meet,  it  is  like  two  pieces 
of  dry  pith  coming  together.  I  have  a  perfectly 
unsurpassed  power  of  annoying  him  by  my  presence. 
I  know  nothing  of  his  affairs,  or  he  of  mine.  Our 
interests  are  his,  not  mine.  Our  house  is  mine,  not 
his.  All  my  tastes  are  '  fads ' ;  but,  so  long  as  I  don't 
disgrace  him,  he  does  not  interfere.  I  have  money 
in  abundance.  Money  —  money  —  who  cares  for 
money,  when  a  man's  heart  and  soul  and  brain  have 
gone  into  it  ?  How  long  is  it  since  he  has  thought 
I  could  want  anything  from  him  but  a  check  ?  But 
ah!  if  I  were  you,  and  Gordon  were  my  suitor  — 
if,  knowing  what  was  to  come,  I  had  it  all  to  live 
over  again  —  I  think  I  would  take  the  bitter  present 
for  one  taste  of  the  old  sweet  that  can  never  come 
back." 

"Nevertheless  you  make  me  feel  that  I  was  wiser 
than  I  knew,"  said  Marion  with  a  wan  smile. 

"Yes,  I  suppose  you  were  wise.  Now,  please  for 
get  my  maunderings,  and  think  over  my  desire  to  be 
of  use  to  you.  If  you  don't  wish  to  travel,  then  just 
come  to  my  house,  and  stay  with  me.  It  is  too  wretch 
edly  lonely  for  you  here.  Have  you  an  idea  when 
they  will  be  at  home  ?  '* 

"  A  week  hence,  my  father  said  in  his  note." 


140  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  A  week  of  this  ?  An  eternity  of  moping.  Come, 
my  dear,  I  have  a  brand  new  notion.  Leave  the  house 
to  run  itself ;  you  have  old  servants  who  know  their 
business.  Return  home  with  me,  or  come  this  after 
noon.  My  husband  is  away ;  we  shall  be  quite  to  our 
selves.  I  won't  let  my  stupid  sheep-dog  Loulie  Kemp 
darken  the  doors  while  you  are  there,  or  Herr  Hof- 
man,  or  that  idiotic  Reggy  Poole.  Then,  if  you  are 
still  bent  on  living  to  yourself,  we  will  find  out  a  home 
for  you,  and  amuse  ourselves  with  fitting  it  up,  and 
you  will  add  an  important  '  one  more '  to  the  fast- 
growing  ranks  of  the  '  Bachelor  Girls.'  Oh  !  "  and 
she  clapped  her  hands,  "  we  will  make  yours  an  ideal 
bachelor  establishment.  You  shall  test  the  question 
whether  it  is  possible  to  do  the  thing  properly,  thor 
oughly,  in  a  perfectly  well-bred,  unbohemian  way.  No 
divans  and  cigarettes  like  that  goose  Kate  Colling- 
wood,  who  makes  such  strenuous  efforts  to  be  an 
original,  and  succeeds  only  in  being  a  bouncer !  I  am 
almost  sorry  you  have  three  thousand  a  year,  it  would 
be  so  nice  to  find  you  a  vocation.  But  three  thousand 
won't  go  far,  after  what  you  have  been  used  to.  It 
will  really  be  quite  paltry,  after  you  pay  the  rent  of  a 
little  flat,  even  if  I  furnish  it  —  and  I  have  rooms  full 
of  furniture  I  don't  use.  You  could  not  trim  bonnets, 
could  you  ?  No,  that 's  not  your  sort,  at  all.  Perhaps 
you  would  like  to  be  the  agent  to  sell  the  violets  from 
our  country-place.  The  gardener  tells  me  he  has 
thousands  in  the  new  frames,  and  begs  me  to  let  him 
dispose  of  'em." 

Marion  again  recognized  the  Mrs.  Romaine  of  her 
former  acquaintance,  alert,  animated  to  enthusiasm  in 
carrying  out  a  new  idea. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  141 

"  There  is  Clara  Van  Shuter,  who  has  started  a  mush 
room  'plant'  in  her  father's  cellar,  and  has  orders  from 
all  the  clubs.  She  has  her  own  floor,  where  she  receives 
her  own  visitors  independently;  and  is  making  a  very 
tidy  little  income,  on  which  she  travels  where  she  likes. 
Mr.  Van  Shuter,  who  is  a  lazy  kind  of  a  man,  fond 
of  his  own  ease,  and  not  so  rich  as  other  members  of 
his  illustrious  family,  says  he  does  not  mind,  if  it 
keeps  Clara  out  of  mischief.  Then  Louise  Alston 
runs  a  shop,  where  girls  under  her  direction  make 
the  loveliest  evening  shirts  for  men,  with  white  lawn 
ties,  better  than  any  you  can  get  in  the  shops ;  and 
they  drive  a  thriving  trade.  Louise  takes  orders  at  the 
Assemblies,  and  '  Howling  Swells,'  and  the  like ;  and 
supports  a  lot  of  poor  women,  and  gives  herself  a 
nice  little  margin  of  profit.  The  thing  is,  to  think  of 
something  taking;  and,  with  a  little  capital,  it  is 
done.  Oh,  we  must  find  a  trade  for  you.  I  shall 
give  a  luncheon  altogether  for  self-supporting  bache 
lor  girls,  and  afterward  each  will  say  a  little  something 
about  her  experience  of  the  blessed  estate  of  living  to 
herself,  and  whether  she  can  think  of  anything  nicer." 

Marion  laughed  outright.  Mrs.  Romaine  had  at  last 
succeeded  in  putting  to  flight  the  haunting  shadow  of 
her  grief. 

"I  can  think  of  many  things  nicer,"  she  said;  "but 
as  circumstances  have  driven  me  to  making  the  ex 
periment,  I  must  try  to  be  equal  to  the  occasion." 

"  Well  said,  Marion  !  I,  for  one,  have  faith  in  you. 
And,  whatever  you  do,  you  may  count  on  me  to  help 
you." 

"  Then  I  think  I  shall  begin  by  living  here  until  my 


142  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

father  returns ;  and  going  out  of  his  house  quietly,  to 
avoid  the  talk  my  leaving  now  would  create." 

"I  suppose  you  are  right,"  said  Mrs.  Romaine,  a 
trifle  disappointed.  "  But  I  shall  be  robbed  of  my 
visitor." 

"  You  have  a  much  better  friend  than  I  was  before," 
cried  Marion,  warmly. 

"I  hope  so,  my  dear.  I  need  all  I  can  get.  And 
there  is  one  thing  certain.  Your  mother's  provision 
for  an  independent  income  for  you  will  at  once  deter 
mine  your  entity  as  one  meriting  consideration  from 
all  outsiders.  If  I  had  had  any  funds  of  my  own  that 
did  not  come  in  a  stream  running  from  my  husband's 
pocket  into  mine,  I  should  have  been  a  happier  and  a 
better  woman.  If  to-day  I  could  go  to  work  and  earn 
an  income,  however  small,  that  I  might  jingle  in  my 
own  pocket,  I  should  walk  through  life  with  my  head 
higher.  As  it  is,  I  spend  money  like  water  because 
my  husband  likes  to  have  me  do  it ;  but  he  pays  all 
bills,  or  gives  me  checks  to  pay  them.  I  don't  know 
what  we  spend,  or  where  it  comes  from.  I  don't  value 
it.  I  am  a  wretched  do-nothing  in  a  society  of  busy 
workers.  And  I  've  an  idea  I  should  have  made  an 
immense  success  in  business.  Just  see  how  I  make 
the  wheels  of  social  enterprise  go  round.  Ah,  there 
was  a  famous  wage-earner  lost  in  John  Romaine's 
wife ! " 

"  I  don't  think  I  should  object  to  owing  my  indepen 
dence  to  the  man  I  love,"  said  Marion,  wondering,  as 
she  said  it,  what  strange  influence  was  at  work  inside 
of  her  —  and,  blushing,  she  stopped  short. 

"  Perhaps  not.    Unmarried  girls  have  literally  every 


A  BACHELOE  MAID  143 

kind  of  fantastic  notion  before  they  meet  the  touch 
stone  of  the  financial  question  with  a  husband  face  to 
face.  But  take  my  word,  and  be  thankful  for  your 
little  purse.  That  is  the  key  that  will  unlock  the  chief 
difficulty  of  your  present  position,  and  a  lot  of  others 
through  life,  I  can  tell  you." 


VIII 


T  was  over,  and  Marion  breathed 
more  freely !  She  had  nerved  her 
self  to  stay  and  receive  Sara,  upon 
her  return  as  the  mistress  of  the 
house  into  which  she  had  come  in 
her  meek  poverty  and  insignificance, 
a  stranger,  so  few  months  before.  Needless  to  say, 
Mrs.  Irving's  manner  upon  this  crucial  occasion  had 
been  all  that  the  most  fastidious  could  have  demanded. 
To  Marion  she  was  deprecating  yet  tender — not  offer 
ing,  but  awaiting,  overture ;  to  the  servants,  banded 
together  in  tacit  opposition,  gracious,  tactful,  yet  leav 
ing  no  loophole  by  which  any  one  of  them  might 
escape  into  open  rebellion  against  her  rule;  and  to 
her  husband  she  held  herself  as  to  the  source  and 
fountain  of  all  earthly  beneficence  and  wisdom.  It 
was  long  since — indeed,  it  had  never  been  in  Marion's 
experience,  or  in  that  of  his  present  household  staff — 
that  the  judge  had  worn  such  an  air  of  complacent 
satisfaction  with  the  events  of  every  day. 

Upon  Marion,  this  new  aspect  of  her  father  acted  as 
an  instant  quietus  of  any  emotional  demonstration 
she  might,  in  spite  of  her  proud  resolve,  have  been 
led  into  betraying  upon  his  return.  For  the  first 


A   BACHELOR   MAID  145 

time  she  saw  fully  the  childish  side  of  him, — his  vanity, 
strutting  cockerel- wise  through  all  his  actions, —  and 
realized  that  her  whole  life  had  been  a  sacrifice  to  it. 
The  film  of  filial  reverence  fell  from  her  eyes.  She 
knew  now  that,  had  he  been  different,  her  nature  had 
not  been  warped  into  dissatisfaction  with  the  common 
lot  of  woman.  Something  within  her  even  asked  the 
question  whether,  in  the  happy  natural  estate  of  girl 
hood  and  wifehood,  where  the  relations  with  father 
and  husband,  or  other  so-called  "  governing"  power 
of  home,  are  as  they  should  be,  this  modern  unrest 
an  dimpatience  of  woman  are  to  be  found. 

But  this  was  not  the  time,  upon  the  eve  of  putting 
into  reality  her  most  cherished  dreams  of  freedom,  to 
turn  and  look  back  at  what  might  have  been.  To 
Sara  she  said  nothing  of  her  new  plans.  Between 
those  two,  henceforth,  there  was  to  be  a  barren  place, 
charred  as  by  fire,  in  which  no  shoot  of  verdure  would 
ever  grow  again.  And  Sara,  who  perfectly  under 
stood  this  fact,  secretly  rejoiced  that  matters  had 
turned  out  no  worse.  The  circumstance  that  Marion 
had  met  them;  greeted  them  in  conventional  fashion, 
ordered  tea  to  be  ready  for  the  bride  on  her  arrival, 
and  had  sat  down  to  dinner  with  them  on  their  first 
evening  at  home  —  quietly  gliding  out  of  her  own 
place  for  Sara  to  sit  in  it  (which  Sara  did  with  the 
most  bewitching  gesture  of  grace  and  deprecation)  — 
was  an  enormous  gain  to  the  new  Mrs.  Irving.  It 
had  given  her  the  pas  with  the  servants,  and  would  do 
so  with  the  outer  world ;  and  it  had  put  the  judge 
into  such  bountiful  good  humor  with  Marion  that  he 

was  absolutely  playful  with  her,  in  an  elephantine  way. 

10 


146  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

Sara,  pleading  fatigue,  had  contrived  to  leave  Mar 
ion  alone  with  her  father  while  he  was  still  m  this 
happy  frame  of  mind,  enjoying  what  seemed  to  him 
the  reward  of  a  deed  that  had  brought  good  to 
all  concerned.  And  Marion,  profiting  by  it  uncon 
sciously,  for  she  was  in  the  exalted  state  of  one  ready 
to  move  mountains,  if  called  upon  to  do  so,  had  gone 
at  once  to  the  point  by  telling  her  father  that  she 
intended  directly  to  leave  his  house. 

Spite  of  his  serene  selfishness,  the  judge  was  startled 
into  an  expression  of  some  natural  regret.  He  went 
further ;  he  even  lost  his  temper,  quite  in  the  old  nat 
ural  way,  ill  befitting  a  joyous  bridegroom.  Marion 
was  told  that  she  was  unfeminine,  ungrateful;  was 
threatened  with  every  variety  of  paternal  displeasure 
if  she  so  much  as  proposed  the  scheme  again ;  and,  in 
the  end,  was  ordered  out  of  his  presence  contemptu 
ously,  like  a  child  who  has  been  caught  stealing  jam. 

"  This  makes  it  easier  for  me,"  said  Marion,  as  with 
a  swelling  heart  she  locked  herself  into  her  own  room. 
A  little  later,  she  heard  outside  her  door  a  footstep, 
and  the  sweep  of  feminine  garments.  There  was  a 
soft  knock,  and  Sara's  voice  pleaded  with  her  for 
admission. 

Marion,  opening  her  door,  stood  within  it  holding 
to  the  knob. 

"  You  will  excuse  me,"  she  said,  frigidly.  "  It  is  as 
well  to  tell  you,  now,  that  what  I  did  in  staying  here 
to  receive  you  was  done  for  him.  And,  since  he  has 
spoken  as  he  allowed  himself  to  speak  to  me  just  now, 
there  is  no  longer  any  reason  to  affect  for  you  a 
tolerance  I  do  not  feel," 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  147 

"As  you  like.  But,  indeed,  peace  is  so  much  less 
complicated  than  war  between  us  two,"  said  Sara, 
with  a  shrug.  "  I  could  really  be  of  the  utmost  ser 
vice  to  you." 

"  I  will  owe  nothing  to  you,"  said  Marion,  inflexibly. 

"  My  dear  child,  you  are  always  so  very  positive," 
returned  her  step-mother,  entirely  at  her  ease.  "  But 
I  am  afraid  you  will  be  forced  into  accepting  from  me 
your  father's  consent,  given  since  I  have  remonstrated 
with  him,  for  you  to  shape  your  life  from  this  time 
according  to  your  own  desires.  I  don't  say  that  I  ap 
prove  of  it.  I  think  that,  together,  you  and  I  should 
have  got  on  better  than  the  majority  of  mixed  fami 
lies.  I  have  always  liked  you,  and  meant  well  by  you ; 
and,  of  course,  I  recognize  that,  by  living  on  here, 
and  accepting  me  before  the  world,  you  'd  have  been 
a  tremendous  help  to  me.  But  when  I  contrast  what 
I  was  when  I  first  came  here  —  when  you  were  so 
much  more  hospitable  with  that  door  of  yours  than 
you  are  now,  by  the  way  —  with  my  present  posi 
tion  and  possibilities,  I  really  can't  bring  myself  to 
lament  over  spilt  milk.  Therefore,  since  you  are  bent 
on  not  forgiving  me,  I  '11  just  agree  with  you  to  carry 
on  this  thing  as  we  've  begun  it  —  decently,  before 
observers.  Your  father  bids  me  tell  you,  you  are  to 
do  exactly  as  you  choose  —  come,  go,  remove  yourself 
and  your  belongings,  where  and  when  you  please. 
This  house,  when  you  like  to  come  here,  will  be  open 
to  you  as  before ;  and  we  shall  always  receive  you 
most  kindly." 

"  I  thank  you,"  said  Marion,  with  haughty  emphasis. 

"  You  should  really  thank  me,  though  you  do  not 


14S  A  BACHELOR   MAID 

mean  it,"  went  on  Sara.  "  And  if,  as  I  suppose  you 
mean  to  try  to  do,  you  succeed  in  whistling  back 
your  old  lover  —  " 

"  That  I  will  not  hear ! "  cried  Marion,  shutting  her 
self  in  her  own  room — to  hear  Sara's  soft,  uncon 
cerned  laugh,  as  she  withdrew  rustling  down  the 
corridor. 

"  What  did  she  mean  ?  "  Marion  asked  herself.  "  It 
was  as  if  she  had  kept  that  arrow  for  the  last ;  and 
had  shot  it  against  her  better  judgment." 

And,  for  the  remainder  of  the  night,  the  arrow,  as 
its  sender  had  intended  it  to  do,  rankled  in  the  bull's- 
eye  of  the  target  at  which  it  was  let  fly.  Marion's 
nature,  too  large  for  petty  jealousy,  was  just  then 
in  an  abnormal  and  not  especially  healthy  state  of 
readiness  to  doubt  every  one  in  whom  she  had  for 
merly  believed.  The  fact  that  she  and  Gordon  had 
so  elaborately  given  each  other  up,  and  that  she  was 
about  to  embark  upon  the  career  of  a  "victim  of 
arrested  development"  emerged  into  the  "arena  of 
perfect  independence,"  did  not  entirely  console  her. 

AND  so,  through  the  series  of  events  detailed,  the 
wrench  had  been  made;  the  parting  was  complete 
between  Marion  Irving,  her  home,  and  her  domestic 
duties  of  the  past. 

To  Miss  Effle  Gordon,  as  the  representative  of  Alec, 
she  could  not  bring  herself  further  to  appeal  for 
the  advice  and  assistance  offered.  To  Mrs.  Romaine, 
rather,  who,  although  she  failed  again  to  exhibit 
the  womanly  tenderness  of  their  first  interview  after 
Marion's  blow,  was  unceasingly  kind  and  active  in  her 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  149 

behalf,  Marion  listened  exclusively,  thereby  wound 
ing  Miss  Effie,  and  keeping  her  at  a  distance. 

"  It  is  only  to  start  you,  my  dear,"  said  her  ani 
mated  mentor,  who  actually  put  off  two  of  Herr 
Hofman's  talks  on  Socialism,  in  her  energy  to  find  a 
habitat  suitable  for  her  new  protegee,  "that  I  inter 
fere  at  all  in  your  affairs.  And  I  have  come  this 
morning  —  you  won't  mind  that  I  have  left  no  cards 
for  Mrs.  Irving,  but  my  time  is  really  so  taken  up  — 
to  say  that  Providence  has  sent  us  Mignon  Cox, 
whose  silly  mother  has  just  started  off  upon  another 
one  of  those  long  wandering  journeys  to  kill  time 
abroad — gust  the  kind  I  proposed  to  you,  and  you 
refused  !'  Mignon,  who  is  tired  to  death  of  dawdling 
in  foreign  countries  and  being  a  cipher,  so  she  says, 
positively  declined  to  go.  So  Mrs.  Cox  left  her  with 
an  ex-governess  in  a  flat  hired  for  her — since  Mignon 
could  not  be  expected  to  keep  up  the  big  Cox  estab 
lishment  alone,  and  that  is  let  at  a  huge  sum  per 
annum,  all  of  which  Mrs.  Cox  is  warranted  to  spend, 
and  more,  on  this  expedition.  I  believe  she  and  her 
maid  mean  to  go  around  the  world,  this  time.  Where 
was  I  ? —  oh !  the  flat  and  the  ex-governess !  It  seems 
Mignon  and  Miss  Slater  have  fallen  out,  and  the 
governess  is  about  to  leave.  Mignon,  who  says  she 
always  admired  you  awfully,  but  is  rather  afraid  of 
you,  wants  to  know  if  you  won't  share  the  flat  and 
the  expenses,  have  your  own  sitting-room,  bedroom, 
latch-key,  and  maid  —  only  sitting  at  table  with  her. 
And  as  she  is  a  nice  little  girl  (a  cousin  of  mine, 
did  I  tell  you? — though  I  can't  stand  that  mother  of 

hers),  I  thought  it  is  just  your  affair." 

10* 


150  A  BACHELOE  MAID 

"Mignon  Cox?    Why,  she  looks  like  a  mere  child." 

"She  is  two-and-twenty,  has  a  separate  income 
from  her  father's  estate,  and  yearns  to  be  in  the 
swim  of  modern  thought." 

"But  I  thought  she  was  going  to  be  married  to 
Lowndes  Carleton." 

"  So  she  was,  but  it 's  off.  Carleton  is  terribly  old- 
fashioned,  you  know;  and  when  she  told  him  she 
was  determined  not  to  be,  according  to  Mrs.  Brown 
ing,  '  kept  in  long  clothes  long  past  the  time  for 
walking/  he  asked  her  if  she  was  going  to  take  up 
the  divided  skirt;  and  that  was  enough.  The  real 
truth  was  that  he  scoffed  at  the  i  woman's  movement ' 
on  all  occasions.  Anyhow,  their  engagement  came 
to  a  sudden  crash.  Of  course  you  think  she  was 
right  to  rid  herself  of  such  an  obstacle  to  progress." 

"  Of  course,"  echoed  Marion,  but  without  warmth. 

"  This  arrangement  with  Mignon  need  not  last 
longer  than  the  summer.  It  is  to  be  an  experi 
ment,  for  both  of  you;  but  I  know  she  is  refined 
and  amiable,  and  very  affectionate ;  so  I  'd  strongly 
advise  you  to  consider  it.  Come  with  me  now,  and 
call  on  her,  and  you  can  judge  how  you  would  like 
the  idea ;  and  then  I  will  take  both  of  you  home  to 
lunch,  and  we  can  talk  it  over  on  all  sides." 

There  was  no  resisting  the  breezy  impulse  of  Mrs. 
Komaine  when  in  pursuance  of  a  novelty;  and  Marion, 
shortly  after,  found  herself  with  that  lady  invading 
the  maiden  stronghold  of  Miss  Mignon  Cox. 

This  was  a  seventh  floor  in  one  of  the  tall  new 
buildings  of  cream-colored  brick  —  possessing  florid 
portals  of  iron  scrollwork,  and  buttoned  elevator- 


"PERHAPS  WE  OUGHT  NOT  TO  DISTURB  YOU." 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  153 

men  —  that  embody  every  known  idea  of  modern 
architects  for  condensing  conveniences.  There  were 
a  drawing-room  and  a  library  of  equal  dimensions, 
opening  out  of  a  hall  into  which  visitors,  caught  upon 
entering,  were  forced  to  move  back  or  forward  in 
single  file.  In  one  of  these  rooms,  decorated  to  ex 
tremity  with  a  colonial  mantelpiece  and  frieze,  and 
filled  with  the  usual  litter  of  choice  nothings  that 
strew  the  path  of  favored  young  womanhood,  Miss 
Cox  was  discovered  behind  an  Empire  desk  covered 
with  brass  filigree,  whence  she  arose  with  cordial 
alacrity  to  receive  her  visitors. 

That  this  bachelor  was  a  pretty  creature,  with  a 
complexion  of  cream  and  roses,  hair  purely  golden 
unmixed  with  brown  or  red,  and  a  physique  suggest 
ing  extreme  fragility,  Marion  already  knew.  They 
had 'met  often  in  society,  but  in  a  casual  way.  Mi- 
gnon  was  now  attired  in  a  so-called  "  morning  "  frock 
of  white  crepon,  with  floating  ruffles,  and  a  sash  of 
white  satin  belted  around  the  prettiest  little  waist 
in  the  world.  Her  hair,  twisted  in  a  small  knot,  was 
arranged  with  care  and  neatness.  Her  feet,  shod  with 
nicety,  were  matched  by  a  pair  of  snowy,  pink-tipped 
hands,  soft  as  down,  and  adorned  with  rings  of  tur 
quoise  and  diamonds.  She  had  just  laid  down  a 
formidable  rubber  penholder,  of  the  "  office  "  variety, 
which  had  been  coursing  its  way  unchecked  over  a 
pad  of  undefended  paper. 

"  Perhaps  we  ought  not  to  disturb  you,  dear,"  Mrs. 
Romaine  said,  sinking  upon  a  "  three-decker "  of 
silken  cushions,  near  the  wood  fire  sparkling  upon 
brass  dragon  andirons ;  "  are  you  too  busy  to  be 
interrupted  ? " 


154  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"Not  at  all.  I  was  just  finishing  my  paper  upon 
Municipal  Reform,  to  be  read  before  our  Twentieth 
Century  Symposium,  to-morrow.  And  I  am  glad  it 
is  finished,  for  it  leaves  me  comparatively  free.  This 
week  I  had  rather  more  than  usual.  In  addition  to 
my  visits  to  the  tenement-house  regions,  my  lecture 
on  Political  Economy  to  a  class  of  working- girls, 
whom  I  am  really  bringing  over  in  the  most  grati 
fying  manner  to  accept  Free  Trade,  occurs  this  after 
noon  ;  and  yesterday  I  had  to  lead  the  discussion  in 
our  literary  club  that  takes  up  weekly  some  book  of 
the  hour." 

"And  what  did  you  take  up  yesterday,  if  I  may 
ask?"  said  Mrs.  Romaine. 

"  They  gave  out ,  but  it  was  voted 

down  as  really  a  little  too  advanced ;  then  we  took 
,  which  was  unanimously  ac 
cepted.  I  wish  I  knew  your  opinion,  Miss  Irving, 
of  that  deliciously  sad  story.  Somehow  or  other,  it 
seems  an  echo  of  so  much  I  have  felt  and  dreamed  of." 

"  You  ? "  said  Marion,  in  some  surprise. 

"  Yes,  though  I  am  not  sure  I  should  have  found 
voice  for  it,  had  not  the  talented  author  done  so  for 
me.  It  makes  one  feel  there  is,  after  all,  so  little 
in  our  healthy,  every-day  lives  of  interest  comparable 
to  those  of  our  brothers  and  sisters  whom  God  has 
set  aside  for  affliction  and  infirmity." 

"  When  I  was  a  girl,  people  used  to  read  Moliere's 
'  Malade  Imaginaire/ "  said  Mrs.  Romaine,  with  ap 
parent  irrelevancy.  "  And  in  that  we  were  told  about 
the  learned  Thomas  Diafoirus,  who,  when  he  wooed 
his  fair  Angelique,  drew  from  his  pocket  a  medical 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  155 

thesis  and  presented  it  to  her,  at  the  same  time  invit 
ing  her,  with  her  father's  permission,  to  attend,  as 
a  divertissement,  the  dissection  of  a  woman  upon 
whom  he  was  to  lecture.  That  's  what  modern 
authors  are  doing  to  yon  fair  Angeliques,  only  they 
don't  ask  the  fathers'  permission." 

"I  thought  you  are  saturated  with  the  modern 
thought-waves,  Cousin  Adela,"  said  Miss  Cox,  like  a 
reproving  cherub. 

u  Dear  me,  so  I  am,"  said  the  lady.  "  But  I  'm  on 
the  down-grade  in  life,  and  I  can't  afford  to  enjoy 
melancholy  as  you  can.  For  instance,  I  like  to  go 
to  'Charley's  Aunt';  but  you,  I  make  no  doubt,  prefer 
Maeterlinck's  '  Aveugles.' " 

".  That  marvelous  soul-drama !  Oh !  I  have  no 
words  for  it,"  cried  Mignon. 

"I  thought  not.  Neither  have  I.  But  all  the 
same,  my  dear,  you  are  a  delightful  little  person ; 
and  I  have  every  confidence  in  your  ability  to  make 
just  the  chum  Marion  Irving  wants.  She  is  n't  as 
advanced  as  you,  and  she  will  be  a  good  brake  upon 
your  wheels.  You  '11  give  her  something  to  interest 
her,  and  to  work  with.  And  I  shall  have  an  eye  on 
both  of  you." 

"  I  wish  you  would  come  to  me,"  said  Mignon  to 
Marion,  blushing  in  true  girlish  fashion.  "  I  should 
consider  it  such  a  privilege.  And  I  am  so  constantly 
engaged,  I  don't  think  I  should  interfere  with  you. 
You  can  have  no  idea  how  often  I  've  wanted  to 
make  friends  with  you,  and  how  I  could  hardly 
believe  my  good  fortune  when  my  cousin  proposed 
this  arrangement." 


156  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  I  am  a  very  disappointing  person,"  said  Marion, 
genuinely  pleased.  " Could  you  take  me  soon?" 

"  Indeed,  yes,"  cried  Mignon.  "  Miss  Slater  is  just 
stopping  on  till  I  can  get  somebody ;  and,  to  tell  you 
the  truth,  Cousin  Adela,  she  is  too  cross  for  any 
thing.  She  's  one  of  those  old  bodies  that  always 
take  offense  at  suspected  affronts ;  and  now  she  sits 
at  table  without  opening  her  lips  to  speak  to  me. 
Oh  !  Marion  (I  may,  may  n't  I?)  —  if  you  really  will 
come  at  once,  what  fun  we  shall  have ! " 

"Not  fun.  A  chastened  resignation  to  hilarious 
circumstance,"  suggested  Mrs.  Romaine,  mischie 
vously. 

The  conversation,  at  this  point,  was  interrupted  by 
the  entrance  of  Mignon's  married  half-sister,  a  hand 
some  young  woman  a  year  or  two  older  than  Marion, 
dressed  with  the  fastidious  elegance  of  her  class. 

Mrs.  "  Johnnie "  Clyde,  as  she  was  usually  called, 
was  full  of  excitement,  and  lost  no  time  in  communi 
cating  it. 

"  I  want  you  all  to  come  to  a  woman's  suffrage 
meeting  at  my  house  on  Thursday,"  she  exclaimed. 
"  I  told  Johnnie  at  breakfast,  to-day,  that  he  need  n't 
say  a  word, —  that  I  am  bound  to  have  my  turn, — 
and  I  have  got  several  leaders  of  public  opinion  on 
both  sides  to  promise  to  be  present  and  address  us. 
There  '11  be  no  trouble  about  getting  people  to  come, 
for  the  thing  is  a  '  go '  in  society,  if  it  never  was 
before." 

"And  what  did  Johnnie  say?"  asked  Mrs.  Ro 
maine. 

"Oh!  he  was  trying  to  be  witty,  as  usual.    He  said 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  157 

that,  if,  in  addition  to  striking  out  the  word  '  male ' 
as  a  qualification  for  voters,  they  require  voters  to  be 
thirty-one,  instead  of  twenty-one,  years  of  age,  it  will 
settle  the  whole  affair  —  that  no  woman  will  ever 
confess  to  the  qualification." 

"How  ridiculously  trifling  men  are  about  the  great 
issues  of  our  age,"  said  Mignon,  putting  back  into 
duress  a  truant  of  a  curl,  and  elevating  her  little 
patent-leather  toes  upon  the  low  fender.  "But  it 
does  n't  matter,  in  the  least.  Our  day  is  coming, 
swiftly,  surely.  What  if  we  don't  master  at  once  all 
the  intricacies  of  political  knowledge  involved  in  the 
assertion  of  our  rights.  When  we  have  the  right  to 
cast  a  ballot,  we  shall  have  wider  views,  see  further, 
see  all  things  as  they  are." 

"Good  gracious,  I  hope  not,"  said  Mrs.  Romaine. 

"Indeed  we  shall,"  chimed  in  Mrs.  Clyde.  "Mi 
gnon  is  quite  right.  It  is  time  to  have  done  with  ac 
cepting  what  is  handed  down  to  us  by  tradition  as 
the  limit  of  woman's  horizon.  And  we  must  work, 
work  always.  There  must  be  no  rest,  no  shameful 
peace,  till  we  have  asserted  ourselves." 

"  Then,  my  dear,  there  will  be  a  larger  army  of 
nervous  prostrates  than  ever,  in  the  field,"  remarked 
Mrs.  Romaine;  "for  goodness  knows  how  we  Ameri 
can  women  are  going  to  take  on  any  more  than  we 
are  doing  now.  That  is,  I  confess,  what  is  always 
bothering  me." 

"  With  our  allotted  work  will  come  strength,"  said 
Mrs.  Clyde,  piously.  "  You  must  let  me  give  you  one 
or  two  '  Woman's  Suffrage  Leaflets '  I  carry  about 
with  me,  Cousin  Adela;  and  don't  fail  to  be  at  my 


158  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

house  Thursday,  at  three.  You  are  to  be  one  of  our 
champions  in  the  column  now  forming  for  the  march, 
although  you  do  amuse  yourself  by  jesting  a  little 
on  the  way.  Here  is  the  leaflet  entitled  '  Wyoming 
Speaks  for  Herself.'  It  is  a  conclusive  answer,  I 
think,  to  that  exceedingly  mischievous  paragraph 
read  aloud  at  a  recent  meeting  by  a  prominent  editor 
and  purporting  to  come  from  an  observer  of  the  re 
sults  of  women's  vote  in  that  State.  And  here  is  Mr. 
Higginson's  '  Short  Answers  to  Common  Objections 
against  Woman  Suffrage.'  I  wonder  which  of  the 
enemy  is  clever  enough  to  dispose  of  these.  And  look 
how  beautifully  Mr.  Cordaire  spoke  for  us  the  other 
day !  There  was  n't  a  right-minded  woman  present 
who  did  n't  just  love  that  man  when  he  had  finished 
speaking !  Why,  I  tell  you,  there  are  lots  of  our  very 
best,  soundest,  most  conservative  men  ready  to  be 
won  over  to  our  cause  if  we  take  hold  of  it  the 
right  way.  As  for  the  best  women,  we  think  we 
have  them  already ! " 

"  Bravo,  Adelaide !  I  hope  the  husbands  will  all  be 
as  amiable  as  yours,  and  then  we  shall  have  fewer  ob 
stacles.  We  must  get  them  to  illustrate  what  they 
say  in  that  play  of  Oscar  Wilde's  that '  all  men  are 
married  women's  property — in  fact,  that  is  the  true 
meaning  of  married  women's  property.'  As  for  me,  I 
have  no  more  claim  to  that  sort  of  property  than  I 
have  to  any  other.  John  Romaine  does  n't  even  do 
me  the  honor  to  listen,  when  I  talk  about  such 
things." 

"  But  you  could  have  us  in  your  ball-room,  dear  ? " 
asked  Mrs.  Clyde,  eagerly. 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  159 

"  Oh,  yes,  as  often  as  you  please.  I  don't  think 
John  Romaine  has  been  inside  of  that  room,  any 
more  than  he  has  of  our  pew  at  church,  or  of  my  car 
riage,  in  the  last  twelve  months." 

"  Never  mind,  Cousin  Adela,"  said  Mrs.  Clyde,  with 
conviction.  "  The  best  part  of  all  this  is  that  we  are 
proving  to  ourselves,  as  well  as  to  the  men,  that  we 
can  do  without  them." 

"  So  we  are ! "  cried  Mrs.  Romaine,  looking  from 
one  to  the  other  of  the  three — "  except  you,  Adelaide, 
who  are  a  high  priestess.  I  am  afraid  you  and  John 
nie  are  still  in  love  with  each  other." 

a  Of  course  we  are,"  said  Adelaide,  bridling.  "It  is 
only  that  I  have  just  come  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
unnecessary  and  unjust  limitations  of  our  sex.  Miss 
Irving,  you  have  kept  so  quiet,  I  wish  I  knew  exactly 
your  view  of  this  matter." 

"  My  view  seems,  by  yours,  to  be  a  rather  humdrum 
kind  of  one,"  replied  Marion.  "  I  think  if  we  have  the 
right  to  hold  property,  we  are  entitled  to  the  right  to 
vote ;  but  it  does  not  seem  to  me  we  are  yet,  as  a  class, 
well  enough  informed  in  political  matters  to  wisely 
handle  that  right.  And  if  all  this  stir  should  fit  us 
for  what  we  are  seeking,  then  it  will  not  be  thrown 
away." 

"  Oh,  I  see.  You  are  one  of  the  moderates,"  said 
Mrs.  Clyde,  in  a  rather  dissatisfied  tone.  "  But  come  to 
our  meetings,  and  you  will  get  on.  And  now  let  me 
tell  you  how  pleased  Mr.  Clyde  and  I  are  —  I  mean 
how  pleased  I  am  —  that  you  are  thinking  of  putting 
up  here  with  Mignon.  Mrs.  Romaine  told  us  yester 
day  she  was  going  to  beg  you  to  do  so." 


160  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"She  won't  be  allowed  to  say  no/'  said  Mignon, 
taking  Marion's  hand. 

"I  can  think  of  nothing  pleasanter,"  answered 
Marion,  looking  with  admiration  into  the  beautiful 
eyes,  appealing  as  a  child's. 

"  Then  it 's  done !  You  are  mine !  My  pal,  shall  we 
say?  The  firm  is  Irving  and  Cox,  for  weal  or  woe — 
or  till  either  of  us  has  any  valid  reason  to  back  out," 
exclaimed  the  girl,  joyously. 

"What  is  a  valid  reason?  —  marriage?  —  "  asked 
Mrs.  Romaine  ;  and  immediately  the  countenances  of 
the  new  firm  were  overspread  with  gloom,  tinctured 
with  some  resentment. 

"  There  is  no  danger  of  that  for  either  of  us,"  said 
Mignon,  firmly.  "Now  come,  Marion,  let  me  show 
you  the  flat.  It 's,  of  its  kind,  a  perfect  dear,  I  know 
you  will  admit.  You  shall  have  the  yellow  bedroom 
—  it  's  larger  and  has  the  sweetest  glimpse  of  the 
river  over  the  chimney-pots  and  roofs ;  and  it  is  n't 
as  becoming  to  me  as  the  blue.  And  there  's  a  por 
celain  tub  and  tiled  floor  in  the  bath-room,  and  elec 
tricity  everywhere.  The  cook  and  housemaid  have  to 
turn  in  unison  when  they  are  in  the  kitchen,  it  is  so 
tiny.  But  you  '11  see ;  and  I  'm  quite  sure  you  '11  fall 
in  love  with  our  bachelor  establishment." 


IX 


MONG  the  political  advocates  of 
Alexander  Gordon  during  these  busy 
days  when  his  prospect  of  high  place 
in  the  service  of  his  country  occu 
pied  our  hero  to  the  exclusion  of 
minor  considerations,  none  was  more 
ardent  than  Lowndes  Carleton.  Although  both  at 
the  bar,  the  two  men  had  never  been  intimate  until 
latterly,  when,  during  the  public  discussion  of  Gor 
don's  aspiration  to  be  United  States  Attorney,  Carle- 
ton  had  sent  to  one  of  the  newspapers  a  letter,  since 
widely  quoted  in  Gordon's  favor. 

This  circumstance  bringing  them  together,  they  had 
met  frequently,  and  become  friends.  Gordon  found 
in  his  new  advocate  an  enthusiastic,  manly  fellow,  as 
good-looking  as  Greek  regularity  of  features  joined 
to  Spanish  richness  of  coloring  could  make  him,  and, 
while  of  a  pleasant  temper,  possessed  of  that  pugnac 
ity  of  opinion  apt  to  be  agreeable  only  when  it  chimes 
with  one's  own  way  of  thinking. 

Gordon,  as  he  looked  at  Carleton  one  evening  over 
the  edge  of  a  claret-glass,  while  they  were  dining 
together  in  Carleton's  rooms,  felt  himself  wondering 
at  the  heroism  of  Miss  Mignon  Cox,  in  having  deliber- 


n 


161 


162  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

ately  put  out  of  her  range  of  vision  such  an  attractive 
object  for  daily  survey 5  and  was  further  possessed 
with  a  secret  wish  that  something  would  lead  Carle- 
ton  to  embark  upon  the  subject  of  this  his  sentimental 
side  of  experience  in  life,  which  their  intimacy  seemed 
now  to  warrant.  Needless  to  say  that  Gordon,  to  all 
intents  the  same  man  as  before  his  final  break  with  the 
lady  of  his  own  love,  was  still  eagerly  interested  in  all 
that  concerned  her.  He  knew,  as  everybody  knew,  of 
her  removal  to  live  with  Miss  Cox ;  and  yet,  by  a 
strange  fatality,  he  had  met  no  one  who  could  give 
him  details  of  their  arrangement,  of  its  success  or  fail 
ure,  of  Marion's  welfare,  spirits,  occupations.  Had  he, 
at  this  epoch,  gone  into  general  society,  there  would 
have  been  no  lack  of  petty  dribblings  of  information 
on  the  subject.  But,  partly  from  a  natural  distaste 
for  its  functions  of  the  ordinary  banal  kind,  partly  be 
cause  he  preferred  to  keep  out  of  range  of  discus 
sions  of  the  Irvings'  household  calamity,  Gordon  had 
eschewed  society,  and  treated  the  houses  of  his  friends 
as  if  they  displayed  yellow  flags  over  their  doors. 

Moved  to  especial  activity  of  speculation  and  an 
noyance  by  a  column  in  an  evening  paper  including 
Marion  and  her  chum  in  a  jocularly  described  list  of 
the  girl  bachelors  of  the  new  era,  he  had  arrived  to 
break  bread  with  Carleton  in  a  very  truculent  frame 
of  mind.  Carleton,  also,  was  perturbed.  His  hand 
some  face  was  clouded,  his  speech  upon  all  subjects 
was  biting,  uncompromising.  And  now,  after  dinner, 
both  men  had  subsided  into  a  sort  of  sulky  silence. 

"Hang  it  all,  Gordon,"  said  Carleton,  finally  emerg 
ing  from  a  reverie  during  which  he  had  been  uncon- 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  163 

sciously  gritting  his  teeth.  "  This  is  slow  work  for 
you.  Let  me  make  a  clean  breast  of  it,  and  say  I 
want  to  murder  somebody." 

"Spare  me  till  we  have  heard  the  result  of  the 
President's  cogitations  upon  my  case/'  said  Gordon, 
smiling.  "Then  I  don't  know  but  you  '11  be  wel 
come  to  make  a  beginning  with  me." 

"  I  want  to  know  if  you  saw  that  infernal  thing  in 

the  'Evening  ,'"  said  his  host,  who  declined  to 

smile.  "It  has  broken  me  all  up;  and  you  —  I  beg 
your  pardon,  if  I  take  a  liberty  —  but  you  must  have 
something  of  the  same  sort  of  disgust  and  rage  in 
you." 

"  Quite  the  same  sort,"  said  Gordon,  grimly. 

"If  these  girls  were  our  wives  —  I  mean  if  such 
good,  straight,  honest  girls,  who  have  no  earthly  in 
tention  to  invite  comment  like  that,  would  give  men 
the  right  to  punch  heads  for  them,  there  might  be  a 
way  of  relieving  the  situation." 

"As  it  is,  we  are  helpless.  "Walter  Bagehot  says 
the  Earl  of  Buchan  once  had  a  copy  of  the  '  Edin 
burgh  Review,'  containing  an  article  that  offended 
him,  put  in  the  lobby  of  his  house,  and  kicked  it 
solemnly  into  the  street.  Perhaps  you  and  I  might 
insure  a  pleasanter  evening  if,  between  us,  we  dis 
posed  of  the  offender  in  that  sort." 

"What  does  it  matter?  The  whole  country  will 
have  it  to-morrow,  anyway.  Gordon,  now  the  ice  is 
broken,  do  you  mind  if  I  talk  to  you  about  those 
girls?  What  's  the  matter  with  'ern  —  with  all  the 
women,  nowadays  ?  I  would  not  care  if  it  was  n't 
the  nice  ones  —  the  kind  a  fellow  wants  in  his  home, 


164  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

you  know ;  but  they  're  as  prickly  as  hedgehogs,  and 
they  're  forever  trumping  up  '  intense '  arguments 
you  are  not  prepared  for.  After  I  've  been  in  court, 
and  down-town  in  that  bustling  throng  of  workers 
all  day,  I  don't  want  to  spend  my  evenings  in  a 
debating  society  where  women  expect  you  to  give 
them  the  lead  because  they  are  women,  in  order  to 
prove  to  you  they  are  not  women ! " 

Gordon  made  an  attempt  to  answer,  but  his  friend, 
having  begun  his  tirade,  was  not  prepared  to  re 
linquish  it. 

"  Do  you  believe  they  are  really,  as  they  affect  to 
be,  ashamed  of  being  loved  by  us  in  the  old-fashioned 
way?  Do  you  know  they  declare  a  true  woman 
ought  to  teach  her  husband  to  love  her  ethically,  not 
physically.  Now,  what  do  you  suppose  they  mean  by 
that?  I  don't  understand ;  I  can't  understand ;  lam 
all  at  sea;  and  I  confess  this  unrest,  this  hysteria 
they  call  the  advent  of  release  from  their  slavery  of 
sex,  is  the  most  unpleasant  feature  of  the  not  enticing 
age  we  live  in." 

"It  is  not  all  unrest  and  hysteria,"  said  Gordon. 
"  My  own  idea  is  that  it  is  a  serious  movement  that 
will  lead  to  results  from  which  many  of  these  offen 
sive  features  will  be  absent.  But  our  American  wo 
men  have  got  to  solve  the  problem  whether  they  can 
accomplish  all  they  have  laid  out  for  themselves  to 
do.  They  are  not,  as  a  rule,  good  housekeepers ;  and 
I  fear  they  will  become  worse  ones.  They  are  de 
voted  mothers ;  but  in  a  high-strung,  emotional  way, 
not  always  best  for  their  children.  Is  the  present 
training  going  to  improve  them  in  that  respect?  Too 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  165 

many  of  them  are  but  fairly  good  wives,  inclined  to 
regard  husbands  merely  as  channels  for  golden 
bounty,  whose  cheerful  compliance  and  continuing 
admiration  of  them  are  only  their  just  due.  I  am 
not  sure  a  wider  liberty  will  change  this  condition 
for  the  better." 

"  See  here,  Gordon,  as  you  're  in  the  same  box  with 
me,  I  'd  like  to  tell  you  how  cut  up  I  feel  about  my 
affair.  And  the  worst  of  it  is,  they  tell  me  she  goes 
about  as  pink  and  white  and  jaunty  and  smiling  as 
ever,  perfectly  absorbed  in  her  duties  to  humanity  at 
large,  evidently  ignoring  my  existence.  I  could  n't 
have  believed  it  of  her.  A  perfect  little  angel,  she 
used  to  be.  And  the  worst  of  it  is,  I  can't  go  there 
to  s.ee  for  myself  how  she  is  getting  on.  I  said  some 
things  when  she  threw  me  overboard  that  she  can't 
forgive,  and  I  have  n't  shown  myself  to  her  since. 
The  fact  is,  I  don't  know  whether  they  receive  men 
visitors,  do  you  ?  " 

Gordon,  who  had  read  in  his  friend's  countenance 
a  gradual  leading-up  to  the  question  put,  and  was 
conscious  of  an  equal  desire  for  information  of  an 
exactly  similar  kind,  burst  into  a  laugh. 

"  I  don't  know,  and  it 's  just  what  I  want  to  know," 
he  said  frankly,  and  was  interrupted  by  the  arrival  of 
Stremof  and  Clarksou,  who  had  been  asked  to  the 
dinner,  but  had  excused  themselves  on  different 
grounds. 

"I  did  not  join  you,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  Clarkson, 
beamingly,  "  because,  in  my  new  regime,  it  is  really 
more  than  human  nature  can  endure,  to  sit  through 
a  good  dinner  and  not  touch  a  morsel  of  it." 
11* 


166  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"What  's  your  present  lay-out,  Clarkson?"  asked 
the  host.  "  Still  on  that  liquid  food  that  rhymes,  I 
believe,  to  hats  off?" 

"Matzoff?  The  same,"  said  Clarkson.  "And  my 
digestion  is  wonderfully  improved  already,  I  assure 
you.  The  only  trouble  is,  it  is  revolutionizing  my 
habits.  Hardly  worth  while  to  put  on  a  clean  shirt 
and  a  white  tie  and  evening  clothes  to  sit  down 
before  a  bottle  of  milky,  fizzy  stuff  that  you  have 
been  keeping  outside  on  your  window  ledge,  is  it? 
Confounded  thing  went  off  in  my  office  the  other 
day,  and  the  cork  hit  a  respectable  elderly  client  in 
the  eye,  and  scared  him  out  of  his  wits.  Thought  it 
was  a  dynamite  explosion,  don't  you  see  ? " 

"  You  have  n't  the  excuse  of  a  solitary  banquet, 
Stremof,"  said  Carleton,  offering  cigars,  and  a  little 
silver  lamp  alight  with  alcohol. 

"No,  but  I  have,  of  all  excuses,  the  one  a  man 
most  readily  accepts  —  the  ladies,"  said  the  gallant 
Russian,  who,  having  just  returned  from  his  first 
visit  to  Washington,  had  not  seen  Gordon  for  some 
time.  "And  in  what  shape  my  temptation  came,  you 
will  never  guess.  I  was  bidden  this  afternoon  at  five 
to  Mrs.  Clyde's,  to  a  discussion  of  —  " 

"Holy  smoke  !  not '  women's  rights '  ? "  interrupted 
Clarkson,  with  a  groan. 

"  Yes ;  and  what  is  better,  I  was  told  to  stop  after 
ward  to  a  '  high  tea '  of  bachelor  girls,  to  which  the 
master  of  the  house  was  the  only  other  male  invited. 
As  far  as  I  could  see,  the  'high  tea'  was  a  short  din 
ner,  lacking  variety  in  wines.  But  the  damsels  —  I 
kiss  my  hand  to  them — were  lovely,  most  spiritu- 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  167 

elles;  they  argued,  they  spoke,  they  demolished  us 
poor  men  with  a  skill,  a  suavity,  that  made  it  rapture 
to  suffer  in  their  cause." 

"  What  were  their  special  topics  this  time  ? "  asked 
Clarkson. 

"  The  first  chapter  of  the  discourse  was  in  insis 
tence  upon  the  right  of  women  who  are  property- 
holders  and  taxpayers  to  vote  upon  any  and  all  ques 
tions  affecting  the  expenditure  of  moneys  collected 
from  taxes." 

"Yes;  but  that  includes  all  questions  of  every  kind 
which  concern  the  administration  of  government. 
And  property  as  a  qualification  for  the  suffrage  is  no 
longer  satisfactory  anywhere.  Even  in  England  it 
will  very  soon  come  to  pass  that  whether  one  shall  be 
a  voter  or  not  will  depend  not  at  all  upon  ownership 
of  property  of  any  kind,  or  in  any  amount.  If  prop 
erty  is  to  vote,  it  is  only  logical  that,  wherever  one's 
property  is  situated, —  if  in  each  of  many  different 
towns,  counties,  States,  where  taxes  are  applied  to 
local  expenditures, —  there  the  taxpayer  must  be  al 
lowed  to  cast  that  vote  ;  and  in  England,  to-day,  the 
loudest  chorus  of  the  radicals  is  '  one  man,  one  vote ' 
—  to  put  an  end  to  such  a  privilege  of  the  owner  of 
property." 

"And  next,"  said  Stremof,  "they  were  very  ani 
mated  in  their  demand  that,  if  married  women  are  to 
be  refused  the  ballot,  on  the  theory  that  husbands 
represent  them  at  the  polls,  unmarried  women, 
maidens  and  widows,  shall  not  be  put  off  on  such  a 
pretext." 

"  But,"  exclaimed  Clarkson,  "  the  law  cannot  dis- 


168  A  BACHELOR   MAID 

criminate  among  women,  in  favor  of  the  unmarried, 
when  a  demand  for  the  privilege  of  voting  is  in  ques 
tion;  to  do  so  would  be  to  offer  a  bounty  to  tempt 
women  not  to  marry,  or  to  get  rid  of  their  husbands. 
There  are  women  who  would  murder  their  husbands 
to  secure  the  right  for  which  so  many  of  them  are 
now  hysterically  clamoring.  And  there  are  too  many 
young  girls  already  who,  distracted  by  the  agitation 
for  'woman's  rights/  refuse  to  exchange  what  they 
call  '  single  blessedness '  for  matrimony." 

"And  who  were  there?"  continued  Clarkson,  after 
a  pause,  neither  he  nor  Stremof  observing  that  the 
other  men  had  dropped  out  of  the  conversation. 

"If  I  could  remember  their  names!  First,  Gordon, 
there  was  your  beautiful  friend,  the  young  lady  who, 
before  any  other,  claimed  my  homage  to  her  kind  — 
Miss  Irving.  I  am  grieved,  but  not  surprised,  at  the 
way  things  turned  out  in  her  paternal  mansion,  by 
the  way.  And  I  hear  that  ces  dames  of  high  society 
have  not  yet  extended  to  the  bride  the  welcome  due 
to  her  husband's  place  among  them  ;  but  who  knows 
if  this  be  so?  Enfin,  there  was,  with  Miss  Irving,  a 
young  person  of  the  rose  and  snow  and  gold  type  of 
beauty  one  sees  in  our  Swedish  neighbors, — a  ravish 
ing  young  person,  made  for  smiles  and  laughter,  but 
serious  as  a  little  nun, —  how  she  lectured  us!  Ma 
foil — what  am  I  saying,  that  I  ought  not  to  say — " 

"  Miss  Cox  was  once  engaged  to  be  married  to  me, 
that 's  all,"  blurted  out  Carleton.  "  But  go  on ;  I  Ve 
no  right  to  her  now,  any  more  than  the  rest  of  you." 

"  I  beg  ten  thousand  pardons,"  cried  the  distressed 
Stremof. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  169 

"  Go  on  with  your  description,  and  you  are  for 
given,"  said  Carletou,  emphatically. 

"  There  was,  of  course,  our  hostess,  a  believer  from 
whom  her  admiring  husband  can  hardly  keep  his 
eyes — even  when  she  is  fulminating  against  his  sex's 
tyranny.  Then,  two  single  ladies  —  friends  who  live 
together  —  who,  I  am  told,  have  great  wealth  and  a 
beautiful  establishment,  and  are  generous  patrons  of 
the  arts.  The  young  lady  who  decorates  interiors  ; 
she  who  makes  bonnets;  she  who  grows  mushrooms; 
the  one  who  has  kennels,  and  raises  prize  dogs  for 
the  market ;  one  who  gives  lessons  in  whist ;  another 
who  has  an  emporium  for  men's  shirts ;  a  girl  of 
nineteen  who  has  been  coaching  male  students  condi 
tioned  in  chemistry;  a  firm  of  pretty  florists;  an 
artist  or  two;  a  litter ateuse ;  a  law  student;  a  lec 
turer  on  bric-d-brac,  in  parlors  —  as  you  say." 

'•  I  beg  your  pardon,  Baron  Stremof,"  put  in  Clark- 
son,  politely.  "  '  Tousorial  artists'  and  ' chiropodists ' 
have  parlors  ;  we  have  drawing-rooms." 

"  Thanks,  Mr.  Clarkson ;  but  I  have  to  unlearn  in 
one  city  of  America  what  they  teach  me  in  another," 
said  Stremof,  gaily.  •' Have  I  told  you  all,  I  wonder? 
I  heard  that  each  of  several  of  these  young  women  is 
in  receipt  of  an  income,  earned  by  herself,  that  would 
support  a  bookkeeper,  his  wife,  and  children,  in  hum 
bler  circumstances;  that  they  have  great  aptitude 
for  business,  great  energy,  and  in  every  case  behave 
with  the  greatest  dignity  and  prudence.  I  wonder 
what  old  Tolstoi  would  say  to  a  society  like  this.  He 
would  hail  it  with  delight,  le  vieux  matt-re  !  " 

"  That  is  not  all  '  unrest  and  hysteria,'  eh,  Carle- 


170  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

ton?"  said  Gordon.  "  Were  any  of  these  ladies 
prominent  in  the  discussion  of  the  afternoon,  Stre- 
mof!" 

"  Several  spoke  briefly  and  gracefully.  The  long 
est  speech,  and  it  seemed  to  me  the  smoothest  and 
best  considered,  came  from  the  young  lady  who  —  er 
—  is  Miss  Irving's  'chum.'  She  is  really  astonish 
ingly  suave,  and  looks  to  be  hardly  more  than  a 
school-girl.  Miss  Irving  was  called  upon,  but  ex 
cused  herself  on  the  ground  that  she  had  not  yet  for 
mulated  her  ideas  sufficiently  to  be  of  weight  in  the 
discussion." 

"  Not  yet  ? "  said  Gordon,  bewildered. 

When  he  had  last  seen  Marion,  she  had  been  like  a 
young  archangel  pluming  his  wings  for  flight  into 
this  debate. 

"  She  avowed,  very  modestly  and  charmingly,  that 
some  of  her  opinions  have  been  modified  recently,  and 
that  she  was  not  prepared  to  try  to  influence  others 
by  her  own  uncertainties." 

"  Did  —  ahem  —  Miss  Cox  —  say  anything  about 
Tier  views  having  modified?"  asked  Carleton,  who 
had  been  pondering  gloomily. 

"  Ah  —  not  that  I  observed,"  said  Stremof. 

"Thank  you,"  said  Carleton,  relapsing  into  reti 
cence. 

"  I  am  accorded  the  privilege  of  visiting  their  bach 
elor  establishment  to-morrow  afternoon,  at  tea-time," 
went  on  the  Russian. 

Carleton  and  Gordon  exchanged  covert  glances. 

"  They  receive,  as  I  understand,  at  that  hour  on 
Thursdays,  quite  frankly,  without  a  chaperon.  But 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  171 

Mrs.  Clyde  or  somebody  is  sure  to  be  there,  on 
dit;  and  already  their  little  five-o'clocks  are  very 
popular." 

The  rest  of  the  evening  in  Carleton's  rooms 
dragged,  perceptibly.  Before  they  broke  up,  Clark- 
son  took  occasion  for  a  word  apart  with  Gordon. 

"I  ought  to  thank  you  for  indirectly  putting  me 
into  renewed  intercourse  with  my  cousin  Kit — Kath- 
erine,"  he  said.  "  Since  I  undertook  those  inquiries 
for  you,  that  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events  I 
could  readily  understand  —  by  the  way,  it  was  lucky 
the  faculty  of  Somerville  had  nothing  but  good  to 
say  of  their  ex-professor,  was  n't  it  ?  'T  would  have 
been  deucedly  awkward  if  she  had  not  been  a  fit  per 
son  for  the  judge  to  marry." 

"Very  awkward,"  said  Gordon. 

"  Has  n't  turned  out  extra  well,  has  it  ?  But  no 
body  could  suppose  a  high-spirited  creature  like  Miss 
Irving  would  stay  there  and  play  second  fiddle  in 
that  house.  Noticed  how  sort  of  down  in  the  mouth 
Irving  J.  has  seemed,  lately  ?  Fellows  about  the 
courts  say  it  's  because  he  has  got  the  gray  mare  do 
mesticated  !  But  where  did  I  begin  ?  Ah  !  about  my 
cousin  Kitty.  Katherine,  dear  soul,  passed  through 
town  last  week,  and  I  danced  attendance  on  her 
at  her  hotel;  and  by  George,  Gordon,  she  's  kept 
wonderfully  fresh.  I  'm  an  oldster,  beside  her.  To 
tell  you  the  truth,  if  I  had  n't  put  all  such  notions 
out  of  my  mind,  I  believe  I  'd  propose  to  Kitty  to 
lecture  to  me  for  the  remainder  of  my  days.  But  I 
doubt  if  she  'd  have  me ;  she  's  just  the  model  of  a 
quiet,  contented,  young  old-maid,  not  an  ounce  of 


172  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

morbid  stuff  about  her;   and  I  could  n't  add  any 
thing  to  her  happiness,  of  course." 

STREMOF,  who  had  engaged  Gordon  to  walk  home 
with  him,  waited  no  longer  than  until  they  had 
reached  the  half -deserted  streets,  before  entering  upon 
a  subject  that  transformed  his  buoyant  manner  into 
one  of  sober  earnest. 

"I  came  here  to-night,  Gordon,  to  get  this  oppor 
tunity  to  consult  you  about  a  matter  of  great  impor 
tance.  I  don't  know  whether  you  have  surmised  what 
feeling  I  took  out  of  town  with  me,  and  have  brought 
back  stronger  for  absence  from  its  source." 

Gordon  felt  a  big  throb  of  the  heart.  It  was  the 
first  time  what  seemed  a  possibility  had  been  pre 
sented  to  him  as  a  thing  likely  to  happen;  and  it  was 
not  agreeable. 

"  You  observed  from  the  first  what  a  strong  hold 
upon  my  imagination  Miss  Irving  has.  She  seems  to 
be  the  ideal  woman  I  have  been  seeking,  to  aid  me  in 
carrying  out  all  the  plans  for  my  fellow-men  that  I 
have  cherished  from  boyhood.  Call  me  a  fanatic,  if 
you  choose;  it  is  in  my  blood.  My  father,  a  dear 
friend  and  disciple  of  Tolstoi,  is  full  of  it.  I  have  a 
young  sister  who  shares  Miss  Irving's  progressiveness 
—  how  she  would  welcome  her !  It  is  n't  vain  of  me 
to  tell  you  that  my  position  at  home  and  my  expecta 
tions  would  not  be  beneath  Miss  Irviug's  notice.  I 
shall  have  large  estates,  wide  interests,  great  oppor 
tunities  of  control  of  human  destiny.  When  we  first 
met,  Miss  Irving  told  me,  with  delightful  frankness, 
of  her  vivid  interest  in  my  country,  its  problems,  its 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  173 

people,  its  literature.  Of  me,  she  was  good  enough, 
to  say  that  I  am  more  like  an  American  than  any  for 
eigner  she  ever  met.  So  I  do  not  think  that  I  dis 
please  her,  personally ;  and  I  know  that  she  charms 
me,  utterly.  Now,  I  am  well  aware  of  your  former 
claim  on  her;  but  if  that  is  renounced,  finally,  defi 
nitely,  I  ask  you  whether  I  have  not  the  right  to  try 
my  chance." 

"You  have  every  right,"  said  Gordon,  mechani 
cally,  though  he  felt  a  noise  like  rushing  water  in 
his  brain. 

11 1  thought  you  would  say  so,"  exclaimed  Stremof, 
with  innocent  egotism.  "  I  must  tell  you  in  all  sin 
cerity  that  I  do  not  expect  to  woo  her  as  an  ordi 
nary  lover  woos.  I  expect  to  set  before  her  my  life- 
work  as  a  chief  attraction.  I  hope  to  convince  her  of 
my  sincerity.  I  can  offer  to  her  father  every  assur 
ance  of  my  fitness  to  ask  her  to  be  my  wife ;  but,  I 
forget  —  it  is  no  longer  a  question  of  offering  to  the 
father  —  I  shall  have  to  ask  her  to  weigh  me  in  the 
balance,  and  see  if  I  be  found  wanting.  It  is  in  fact 
a  comrade  —  a  fellow-missionary  —  that  I  am  seeking 
to  take  home  with  me;  but  that  will  not  prevent 
my  loving  her,  and  being  to  her  what  one  of  her 
own  countrymen  would  be.  Smile  at  me  if  you  like, 
Gordon,  mon  ami  —  I  shall  not  resent  it.  I  have,  no 
doubt,  a  way  of  expressing  myself  fervently,  that  you 
self-contained  Americans  do  not  understand.  But  I 
am  sincere,  voild  tout." 

11 1  believe  you,  Stremof,"  said  his  companion,  upon 
whom  it  was  now  clearly  incumbent  to  make  appro 
priate  answer.  "  And  it  's  no  use  my  telling  you  I 


174  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

understand  your  feelings.  That  would  be  highly 
superfluous." 

"  But  you  see  that  I  could  not  go  on  further,  with 
out  this  sanction  from  you?"  cried  Str£mof,  whose 
radiant  zeal  made  him  eager  for  the  relief  of  speech. 
"  You,  who,  of  all  the  men  I  have  met  in  this  won 
derful,  inspiring  country,  are  the  one  I  should  first 
choose  to  be  my  friend  always." 

"You  are  very  good,"  responded  Gordon,  secretly 
possessed  of  a  desire  to  end  their  friendship  then  and 
there  by  some  such  indefensible  act  as  knocking 
Stremof  down. 

But  this  was  not  because  he  did  not,  in  spite  of 
bitter  rivalry,  appreciate  and  admire  the  honest  spirit 
of  his  unconscious  opponent.  He  was  overpowered 
by  the  new  idea  that  danger,  like  this  now  threatened, 
could  have  come  to  him  from  such  a  quarter.  Such 
a  thing  as  Marion's  loving,  or  giving  her  hand  to, 
any  man  of  their  common  acquaintance  in  New  York 
had  never  suggested  itself.  He  knew  her  too  well ; 
there  was  no  other  possible  Richmond  in  the  field! 
She  was  cold,  fastidious,  a  dreamer  of  dreams, 
isolated  by  her  fancies  from  risk  of  impressiona 
bility  from  ordinary  sources.  It  was  only  some 
great  quixotic  enterprise,  some  task  to  work  out, 
some  definite  career  to  accomplish,  that  could  tempt 
her.  And  here  was  this  winning  and  ardent  thor 
oughbred,  appearing  to  offer  just  what,  under  the 
circumstances,  might  prove  to  be,  to  her,  a  welcome 
outlet  for  her  energies. 

"  I  do  not  ask  you,  my  dear  Gordon,  to  give  me 
your  good  wishes,"  pursued  the  young  man.  "It  is 
too  much ;  because,  whatever  the  cause  of  your  sepa- 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  175 

ration  from  the  lady,  I  well  know  you  cannot  be 
pleased  to  think  of  another  man  winning  that  prize." 

"  Confound  his  impudence ! "  was  Gordon's  thought, 
as  he  assented  with  some  unintelligible  monosyllable 
that  might  have  meant  anything. 

It  was  perhaps  well  for  both  of  them  that  the  con 
versation  came  to  an  end  in  their  arrival  at  the  door 
of  Gordon's  lodgings.  He  did  not  ask  Stremof  to  go 
in,  nor  did  the  latter  seem  to  expect  it. 

"  Voiis  ne  m'en  voulez  pas,  Gordon  f "  he  said,  as  they 
parted,  with  a  boyish  appeal  that  upon  another  sub 
ject  would  have  won  a  cordial  response.  "  You  won't 
keep  a  grudge  for  me !  You  think  I  have  been,  as 
you  say,  '  fair  and  square ' !  " 

"  Altogether  fair  and  square,"  said  Gordon,  giving 
him.  his  hand. 

Stremof,  humming  Carmen's  song,  heard  at  his  first 
meeting  with  Marion,  fared  gaily  off  into  the  night. 
Gordon,  on  his  door-stone,  watched  the  blithe  fellow 
disappear,  and  then  mounted  his  stairs,  feeling  as  if 
a  leaden  weight  were  attached  to  each  foot.  Opening 
his  desk,  he  took  out,  as  he  had  done  on  a  former 
occasion,  Marion's  photograph,  and  again  gazed  at  it, 
but  with  a  different  feeling. 

"You  did  not  reclaim  this  from  me!"  he  said  to 
her,  in  spirit.  "You  knew  you  could  trust  it  with 
me.  And,  to  prove  that  you  were  right,  I  now  sur 
render  it." 

A  fire  was  burning  behind  a  wire-gauze  screen 
upon  his  hearth.  Removing  the  screen,  he  realized 
for  the  first  time  the  chill  of  his  fingers  and  of  his 
heart. 

Bending  down,  he  threw  the  photograph  upon  the 


176  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

coals.  Strangely  enough,  it  fell  erect,  and  shriveled 
from  below,  leaving  her  lovely  eyes  gazing  at  him 
untouched. 

He  could  not  resist  an  impulse  to  pluck  away  the 
fragment,  and,  scorching  his  fingers  in  the  act,  thrust 
the  remainder  of  the  card  into  destruction. 

"Finis!"  he  said,  aloud,  the  smart  of  his  burn 
recalling  him  from  dreamland  to  the  infirmities  of 
poor  physical  nature. 

After  this,  he  knew,  it  would  be  no  more  in  him  to 
make  a  step  in  her  direction  until  she  should  ask  it, 
than  for  the  obelisk  in  the  park  to  wander  forth  to 
pay  court  to  Diana  on  the  tall  tower. 


PRIL  had  come,  and  winter,  linger 
ing  in  the  lap  of  spring,  found  in 
the  household  of  Judge  Irving 
hardly  a  realization  of  expectations 
so  fondly  cherished  by  the  newly 
married  pair  upon  entering  into 
their  bond.  Over  the  master  of  the  house,  indeed,  had 
passed  a  change  that  was  patent  and  consoling  to  his 
domestic  staff.  In  the  tart  language  of  old  Ann,  an 
Irish- American  citizen  who  had  been  long  a  resident 
under  his  roof,  "  He  was  that  bruk  in  sperit,  praise 
the  saints !  't  was  a  joy  to  see  him  about  the  house." 
The  new  mistress,  who  had  been  regarded  at  first 
with  considerable  doubt,  had  succeeded  in  planting 
her  banner  triumphantly  upon  the  kitchen  citadel. 
The  servants,  one  and  all,  swore  by  her,  enjoyed  her 
liberal  reign,  her  love  of  luxury,  and  the  stir  and 
vivacity  her  presence  had  brought  into  the  previously 
dull  house. 

For  although  Mrs.  Romaine  and  other  ladies  of 
Marion's  acquaintance  had  somehow  not  yet  found 
it  entirely  convenient  to  pay  their  respects  to  the 
judge's  bride,  there  had  not  been  lacking  a  following 
to  the  representative  of  his  name  and  fame.  It  is 

12  177 


178  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

curious  how,  in  a  large  society,  such  a  following  is 
formed.  It  is  gathered  from  unexpected  quarters ;  it 
presents  to  casual  view  a  very  fair  imitation  of  a  se 
lect  original  whose  doings  are  constantly  upon  its  lips; 
and  yet,  turn  it  as  one  may,  the  hall-mark  is  nowhere 
to  be  found.  And  Mrs.  Irving  had  not  by  any  means 
intended  to  frequent  a  society  that  had  not  the  hall 
mark.  What  she  aimed  for  was  to  leave  behind  for 
ever  the  debatable  land,  and  to  come  out  into  a  region 
of  unshadowed  respectability.  She  even  hated  some 
of  the  people  she  had  drawn  into  her  circle,  so  dubi 
ous  did  she  feel  them  to  be.  But,  all  told,  she  did 
not  hate  them  as  much  as  she  did  the  people  of 
Mrs.  Romaine's  set,  who  resented  the  unseemly  haste 
of  her  marriage  with  Marion's  father,  and,  although 
they  could  extract  no  word  in  blame  of  her  from 
Marion,  were  persuaded  that  Sara  had  ventured 
among  them  out  of  her  place. 

Everything  is  forgotten  or  lived  down  in  six 
months  in  New  York,  Sara  had  heard  it  said,  and 
with  that  she  was  obliged  to  be  content.  In  the 
mean  time  she  was  not  going  to  live  exclusively 
dependent  for  companionship  upon  a  vain,  pragmati 
cal  man,  whose  demand  upon  her  for  approval  and 
compliment  was  practically  without  limit.  Why,  this 
would  be  worse  than  the  boarding-house  in  Wash 
ington,  with  the  old  ladies  knitting  and  speculating 
over  the  society  columns  of  newspapers !  Luckily  the 
hours  were  long  in  which  her  lord  kept  himself  and 
his  sponge-like  appetite  for  praise  down-town;  and 
there  was  Marion's  carriage  for  her  to  drive  in,  and 
Marion's  vogue  in  the  big  shops,  that  she  had  once  so 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  179 

much  envied,  to  draw  upon.  But  even  this,  and  the 
obsequiousness  of  shopmen  who  did  not  know  the  dif 
ference  between  herself  and  the  "  real  thing,"  became 
in  due  time  a  bore.  Her  eager  intellectual  spirit  cast 
aside  the  acquirements  of  material  wealth  as  heartily 
as  it  had  aspired  to  them.  The  safe  haven  of  conven 
tionalism  now  hers — for  she  had  little  fear  that  her 
Nemesis  would  ever  rise  up  to  hound  her  out  of  it  — 
seemed  to  her  already  at  times  a  prison. 

To  do  Sara  justice,  the  governing  impulse  of  her 
discontent  was  repudiated  love.  As  well  as  she 
could  love  any  two  beings,  she  had  loved  Gordon 
and  Marion  —  Gordon,  fiercely,  imperiously,  with  a 
first  passion  unsupported  by  reasonable  hope;  Mar 
ion,  fiercely,  jealously,  and,  withal,  with  a  certain 
reverence  for  her  regnant  quality  of  womanly  purity 
of  thought  and  word  and  deed.  Sara  could  not  tell 
whether  she  would  rather  have  had  Gordon  return 
her  feeling,  and  thus  alienate  her  from  Marion  —  or 
have  Marion  believe  in  her  and  trust  her  as  of  old. 
Now  that  she  had  lost  that  trust,  it  seemed  as  if 
an  angel,  stooping  toward  her,  had  been  suddenly 
snatched  away. 

In  her  first  resentment  of  Marion's  very  natural 
inclination  to  shrink  away  from  her  father's  wife, 
Sara  had  tried  bravado,  had  assumed  indifference. 
But  in  reality  she  was  stabbed  to  the  quick  with 
disappointment.  How  could  she  let  Marion  know 
that  the  marriage  with  the  judge  had  been  like  a 
plank  to  save  her  from  drowning  ?  Upon  the  episode 
with  Marion's  lover,  Sara  chose  not  to  let  her  memory 
dwell. 


180  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

The  fact  that  Gordon  also  had  kept  aloof  from 
her  siuce  her  return  as  his  old  friend's  wife  did  not 
of  course  surprise  her.  His  visit  of  ceremony  —  two 
cards  left  one  afternoon  when  she  was  sure  to  be  out 
—  had  not  been  followed  up,  and  she  had  lent  her 
subtle  powers  to  the  work  of  estranging  her  husband 
from  him.  When  one  considers  how  easily  this  pro 
cess  is  every  day  accomplished,  in  the  matter  of  hus 
bands'  friends,  by  women  who  have  no  such  good  and 
cogent  reasons  as  had  Mrs.  Irving,  her  success  is  not 
surprising. 

Sometimes,  as  the  days  went  on,  and  Marion  did 
not  come  back  to  her,  Sara  sat  fretting  her  heart  out 
in  a  desire  to  reclaim  the  girl's  love  and  respect. 
From  what  she  could  gather  here  and  there,  her  step 
daughter,  under  the  new  influence  upon  her  life,  had 
blossomed  out  to  be  quite  a  different  being  from  the 
recluse  of  her  father's  home.  Marion  was  heard  of 
as  in  demand  by  society,  not  of  the  madly  merry 
variety,  but  of  such  cultured  and  individual  folk  as 
Sara  would  have  given  her  eyes  to  call  her  own.  And 
now  there  had  come  to  Sara's  ears  a  surprising  rumor 
concerning  Marion — a  rumor  she  properly  judged  to 
require  investigation  before  it  was  believed. 

The  story  had  been  brought  to  her  by  a  certain 
Miss  Boulter,  a  girl  like  herself  on  the  fringe  of  a  so 
ciety  she  yearned  to  enter,  but,  unlike  Sara  Irving,  a 
silly,  pushing  creature  who  carried  her  small  wares 
of  gossip  like  a  packman  from  house  to  house,  and 
was  at  no  time,  in  the  handling  of  them,  redeemed 
by  the  saving  grace  of  wit. 

"Is  it  possible  you  have  n't  heard!"  said  Miss 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  181 

Boulter,  with  well-simulated  surprise.  "  I  thought, 
as  much  together  as  you  and  Miss  Irving  are,  you  — 
I  just  admire  Marion  Irving !  She  and  Mignon  Cox 
were  at  the  play  in  Mrs.  Romaine's  box  last  night, 
and  Baron  Stremof  was  there,  too.  He  's  a  beauty, 
don't  you  think  ?  Something  so  aristocratic — I  wish 
you  'd  have  him  at  one  of  those  nice  little  dinners  of 
yours,  and  ask  me.  I  think  he  's  ever  so  much  bet 
ter-looking  than  that  ill-mannered  Alec  Gordon,  who 
undertook  to  pretend  he  did  n't  see  me  when  I  bowed 
in  the  street  the  other  day.  But  then  blond  mus 
taches  are  so  much  prettier  than  dark  ones,  don't  you 
think  so  ?  Popper  says  I  'm  so  gone  on  foreigners  he 
believes  I  will  end  by  marrying  one  myself,  and,  if 
I  do,  he  '11  not  give  me  a  cent.  He  says  they  are 
all  make-believe  titles  and  fortune-hunters,  every  one 
of  'em.  Does  Baron  Stremof  expect  to  get  a  lot  of 
money  with  Marion,  I  wonder  ?  " 

"  Baron  Stremof  is  a  man  of  rank,  culture,  and 
wealth,"  said  Sara,  stiffly.  "  He  is,  besides,  of  a 
charming  temper  and  manners,  and  an  offer  from 
him  would  be  an  honor  to  any  girl  to  whom  he  should 
make  it.  But  you  will  oblige  me  by  not  asking  me 
to  discuss  the  affairs  of  my  husband's  daughter  with 
an  outsider." 

"  Goodness  me ! "  Miss  Boulter  observed,  retiring 
under  cover  of  a  spiteful  laugh.  "I  could  not  sup 
pose  it  was  such  a  sacred  matter,  seeing  you  had  n't 
even  heard  of  it  before  I  told  you." 

Sara,  mentally  determining  to  cross  Miss  Boulter 
off  her  poor  little  visiting-list,  came  to  a  quick  re 
solve.  Ordering  her  carriage,  she  drove  at  once  to 
12* 


182  A  BACHELOK  MAID 

the  cream-colored  mansion  that  held  her  stepdaugh 
ter  enshrined  on  its  seventh  floor,  and,  boldly  ascend 
ing  in  the  lift,  pressed  the  electric  button  of  the 
Bachelor  Girls'  door.  A  plump  little  maid,  with  a 
butterfly  of  white  muslin  soaring  above  her  head  in 
lieu  of  cap,  ushered  the  caller  into  Miss  Irving's  sit 
ting-room,  and,  taking  her  card,  announced  her  inten 
tion  to  "see "  if  Miss  Irving  was  at  home. 

Marion  came  at  once,  a  look  of  alarm  upon  her  face. 

"My  father  —  there  is  nothing  the  matter  with 
him?"  she  asked  eagerly,  holding  back  perceptibly 
from  Sara's  studied  smile  of  greeting. 

"  So  you  think  nothing  short  of  illness  or  accident 
would  have  brought  me !  "  Sara  said  with  a  gentle 
melancholy  in  her  tone.  "I  come,  my  dear,  as  an 
envoy  from  your  father.  We  have  heard  that  your 
engagement  to  Baron  Stremof  is  discussed  as  likely 
to  be,  if  not  already,  a  fact,  and  we  think  common 
propriety  demands  that  we  should  know  how  much 
of  this  is  true." 

"  When  my  father  makes  such  an  advance  to  me  as 
his  child  deserves,"  Marion  said  haughtily,  "  I  shall 
answer  him,  not  you." 

Even  Sara's  armor  was  not  proof  against  the  look 
that  accompanied  this  speech. 

In  one  of  the  revulsions  of  mood  that  lent,  in  its 
way,  an  odd  attraction  to  her  character,  she  went 
over  to  Marion's  side,  and  took  her  hand  tenderly. 

"  O  Marion,  why  can't  w-e  be  friends  ?  If  you  knew 
how  weary  the  days  are  that  keep  you  from  me ;  if 
you  knew  how  all  I  have  acquired  seems  as  nothing 
beside  the  knowledge  that  you  shun  and  mistrust  me ! 


"MARION   CAME   AT   ONCE.' 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  185 

After  all,  what  have  I  done  that  another  in  my  situ 
ation  would  not  have  done?  Why  should  you  sit 
forever  in  the  seat  of  judgment,  and  condemn  a 
homeless  pauper  who  accepted  such  bounty  as  your 
father  offered  me?  Put  yourself  in  my  place  — 
everything  in  the  world  I  aspired  to  do  was  depen 
dent  on  means  and  opportunity  —  could  I  refuse 
them  ?  Marion,  Marion,  forgive  me,  and  love  me  as 
you  loved  before." 

"It  is  not  that  I  cannot  forgive,"  said  Marion, 
slowly.  "  I  believe,  if  I  know  my  heart,  I  have 
already  forgiven  you.  As  affairs  stand,  it  has  all 
turned  out  for  the  best.  My  life  is  freed  of  some  of 
its  worst  crosses.  If  I  am  not  altogether  happy,  it  is 
because  no  one  in  this  world  is  meant  to  be  happy,  I 
suppose  —  "  she  stopped,  sighing. 

"  Take  me  back  into  your  heart,  darling,  make 
me  your  confidante  as  before,  and  I  '11  engage  to 
make  you  'altogether  happy/"  cried  Sara  with  her 
old  impulsiveness,  throwing  her  arms  around  Marion, 
and  kissing  her  upon  the  cheek. 

But  Marion,  troubled  and  unrespondiug,  drew 
away  from  her  with  a  movement  of  repulsion  Sara 
could  not  mistake — a  movement  that,  while  it  pierced 
her  with  mortification,  aroused  in  her  an  impulse  to 
repay  it  in  mischief. 

"  So  you  will  have  none  of  me,  eh "? "  she  said  in  a 
changed  tone.  "Well,  as  you  please.  But,  before 
we  drop  the  subject,  tell  me,  to  clear  up  mystery,  if 
the  grudge  you  bear  me  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
little  interlude  between  me  and  a  certain  old  lover 
whose  place  you  seem  so  quickly  to  have  supplied." 


186  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

Marion  started  violently.  Sara  could  not  now  com 
plain  of  her  indifferent  exterior. 

"You  don't  answer,  but  I  do  not  need  words. 
Pray,  then,  when  you  had  no  longer  a  claim  upon 
Gordon,  why  should  you  have  resented  what  you  sup 
posed  to  have  passed  between  us  f  Had  not  I,  as 
well  as  you,  a  right  to  my  chance  ?  To  tell  you  the 
truth,  he  was  so  much  a  man  that,  had  I  not  realized 
the  match  with  your  dear  father  had  been  made  for 
me  by  heaven,  I  might  perhaps,  by  now,  have  been  in 
enjoyment  of  privileges  you  cast  away." 

"  Is  this  true  !  "  said  Marion,  coming  nearer  to  her. 

"  What  can  it  possibly  matter  to  you,  now  ? "  re 
turned  Mrs.  Irving,  gracefully. 

There  was  a  pause.  Marion  was  trying  to  control 
the  emotion  that  confused  her  power  of  formulating 
thought  into  words.  Sara  was  rapidly  reviewing 
contingencies. 

"  For  not  only,"  went  on  the  stepmother,  "  did  you 
give  him  up,  in  the  first  place,  for  no  reason  that 
anybody  could  see,  but  you  have  chosen  entirely 
to  break  with  him  since." 

"  I  did  not  choose  ;  it  was  his  doing,"  said  Marion, 
forlornly. 

"  Indeed  ? "  said  Sara,  quickly,  having  thus  ascer 
tained  exactly  what  she  desired  to  know.  "  But,  my 
dear,  when  you  know  men  as  I  do,  you  will  under 
stand  that,  however  kindly  Gordon  may  still  feel  to 
ward  you  as  a  friend,  it  would  be  natural  for  him  to 
keep  his  distance  till  all  these  things  have  become 
a  little  more  ancient  history.  Men  are  not  fond  of 
being  confronted  with  their  own  changes  of  base." 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  187 

"He  told  me,"  said  Marion,  impetuously,  "that 
there  had  never  been  anything  between  you  and  him 
self  that  I  might  not  know — only  he  could  not  speak. 
And  I  believed  him.  I  believe  him  still." 

"  Hum !  Admirable !  Just  what  I  should  have  ex 
pected  of  him.  He  belongs  really  to  the  age  of  the 
preux  chevalier.  If  you  believe  him  still,  my  dear 
girl,  then  why  should  you  have  asked  me  if  what  I 
hinted  at  were  true?" 

"  You  took  me  by  surprise.  But  now  that  you 
have  gone  so  far,  you  must  say  all.  Tell  me  what 
had  happened  between  you  the  day  I  came  in  —  the 
day  before  your  sudden  marriage  with  my  father. 
Had  Alec— was  it  a  question  whether  you  should  not 
rather  marry  him  —  oh,  why  do  I  ask  that?  Don't 
aiisAver  me!  I  promised  to  believe  him.  It  is  your 
manner  that  is  trying  me  beyond  endurance.  You 
seem  so  full  of  something  I  must  have  been  blind  to 
—  well,  then,  do  answer  me ! " 

"  I  cannot  deny  that  some  such  question  was  dis 
cussed  between  us,"  said  Sara,  dropping  her  eyes, 
a  though  it  is  hardly  becoming  in  your  father's  wife 
to  speak  of  it  to  your  father's  daughter.  But  I  insist, 
Marion,  that  you  put  to  me  no  more  of  these  explo 
sive  questions  that  grate  upon  my  nerves  in  the  most 
hateful  way.  Let  us  talk,  rather,  of  your  intended 
marriage,  which  you  have  left  me  to  assume  is  no  idle 
rumor.  As  the  Baroness  Stremof  you  will  have  a 
brilliant  position  and  a  husband  of  an  ideally  sweet 
temper.  You  two  will  have  abundant  opportunity 
to  go  tilting  together  at  windmills.  On  the  whole, 
your  life  will  have  a  great  deal  more  local  color  in  it 


188  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

than  it  would  have  had  as  plain  Mrs.  Alec  Gordon, 
the  wife  of  a  New  York  lawyer.  I  almost  envy  you 
the  opportunity  of  getting  out  of  this  little  frog-pond 
we  call  New  York  society." 

Then  Marion  rallied. 

"What,  already?"  she  said;  and  the  famous 
"Deja"  of  Talleyrand  did  not  sting  deeper.  Sara 
had  actually  nothing  more  to  say. 

Marion  escorted  her  to  the  door  of  the  lift,  and 
bade  her  a  courteous  "  good  morning."  As  the  lift 
sank  out  of  sight  with  the  little  richly  clad  figure, 
wearing  an  air  of  almost  dejection,  Marion  had  an 
impulse  to  call  after  her  some  word  betokening  re 
gret.  But  the  image  of  Gordon  came  between  them, 
and  the  softened  moment  passed.  She  went  back 
into  her  room  and  wrote  a  note ;  then,  ringing  for  a 
messenger,  despatched  it  firmly. 

Mignon,  returning  later  to  the  house,  found  her 
chum  sitting  before  a  wood  fire  that  was  twittering 
like  a  chimney  full  of  birds.  How  long  Marion  had 
been  there,  she  herself  did  not  know.  As  Mignon 
spoke,  she  started  in  a  bewildered  sort  of  way. 

"  Surely  you  have  n't  been  asleep  H  "  said  Mignon, 
laughing. 

"I — I  think  not.  Why,  how  absurd — of  course 
not !  I  have  been  reviewing  my  whole  life,  dear  — 
all  my  opportunities,  my  aspirations,  my  disappoint 
ments.  And  I  have  been  wondering  whether  I  can 
do  better  with  what  remains  of  it  than  to  take  up  a 
definite  mission  to  help  poor  souls  in  chains,  and  at 
the  same  time  make  somebody  happy  who  is  fonder 
of  me  than  I  deserve." 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  189 

"Marion,  listen  to  me."  said  Mignon,  throwing  off 
her  jacket  and  hat,  and  dropping  011  a  chair  at 
Marion's  side.  "You  don't  love  Baron  Stremof; 
you  are  trying  to  work  a  mine  that  has  nothing  in 
its  veins.  Regard,  respect,  romance,  are  not  going 
to  make  up  to  you  for  the  love  you  do  not  feel." 

"  Why,  Mignon  ! "  said  Marion,  regarding  her  with 
astonishment. 

"I  know  you  think  I  'm  a  selfish  and  heartless 
little  cat ;  and  so  I  was.  But  this  winter,  spent  for 
other  people,  has  set  my  mind  to  working  on  many 
things  that  did  n't  occur  to  me  before  I  was  out  of 
leading-strings.  I  used  to  take  my  mother's  views 
as  gospel ;  now  I  see  I  have  a  right  to  my  own.  I 
believe  every  woman's  life  is  given  to  her  for  her 
very  own.  I  don't  mind  telling  you,  now,  that  if 
mama  had  not  disliked  Lowndes  Carleton  and  kept 
disparaging  him  to  me  at  every  opportunity,  I  should 
not  have  parted  with  him.  Mama's  own  married  life 
was  wretchedly  unhappy,  and  I  suppose  I  reap  the 
fruit  of  it.  But  it  was  n't  myself  I  started  to  talk 
about.  I  wonder  if  you  would  let  me  ask  you  one 
little  question.  Are  you  ever  sorry  you  gave  your 
lover  up?" 

"  '  Ton  f '  Oh,  Mignon  ! "  said  Marion,  putting  one 
finger  upon  her  mentor's  roseate  cheek. 

"Never  mind.     Tell  me,  Marion." 

"  It  would  be  no  use  telling  you,  if  I  were.  It  is 
he  who  gave  me  up,  really.  Something  is  between 
us  that  is  too  dark  and  sad  for  anything." 

"And  you  are  no  longer  interested  in  Gordon?" 

"Did  I  say  that?" 


190  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"Enough,  perhaps,  to  be  glad  he  has  got  his  ap 
pointment.  I  met  Mr.  Clarkson  in  the  street  just 
now,  who  told  me  a  telegram  has  just  come  from 
Washington  saying  that  the  Senate  has  confirmed 
the  President's  nomination,  and  that  Gordon's  friends 
are  all  jubilant." 

"  I  am  glad,"  said  Marion. 

"  Really,  Marion,  I  don't  know  what  to  make  of 
you.  Yesterday  you  would  not  have  spoken  of  it  in 
that  lifeless  way.  But  no  more  of  Mr.  Gordon. 

"I  will  tell  you  of  my  visit  this  morning  to  my 
little  German  woman, — the  baker's  wife,  you  know, — 
with  the  week-old  baby.  I  was  sorry  to  find  that 
since  I  was  last  there  she  was  not  doing  so  well.  The 
woman  who  was  taking  care  of  her  had  left,  and  Mrs. 
Stromeyer  was  very  restless  and  miserable,  the  baby 
crying,  and  the  place  dreadfully  upset  and  dirty.  It 
was  that,  as  much  as  anything,  that  worried  her,  I 
saw;  and  so  I  went  to  work  and  had  a  regular  i  clean 
house'  on  my  own  account,  aided  by  a  stupid  girl 
I  impounded  on  a  lower  landing  of  the  tenement  and 
paid,  then  and  there,  to  help  me.  I  always  liked 
bringing  order  out  of  chaos.  And  when  the  rooms 
were  clean,  and  the  husband's  breakfast  things 
washed  up,  we  set  to  work  upon  the  invalid,  who 
besought  me  to  give  her  baby  a  good  bath.  I  don't 
think  I  ever  touched  such  a  young  creature  before, 
and  I  was  rather  timid ;  but  the  mother  directed  me, 
and  there  were  clean  clothes  in  a  drawer.  By  and 
by  I  had  the  little  thing  as  fresh  and  pink  as  an  ar 
butus  bud;  and  dressed  it;  and,  to  stop  its  wailing, 
laid  its  cheek  against  mine  as  I  walked  up  and  down 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  191 

the  floor.  Marion,  did  you  ever  know  how  soft  and 
sweet  a  baby's  cheek  is,  and  its  little  fuzzy  head? 
I  wanted  to  hug  the  darling  tighter,  but  it  would 
not  stay  quiet  with  me,  and  so  I  laid  the  little  bun 
dle  beside  the  mother,  and  instantly  the  crying 
stopped  —  such  a  funny  little  gobbling  noise,  and  the 
mother  radiant  over  it  in  spite  of  maladies,  dire  pov 
erty,  husband  out  of  work,  she  quite  unfit  to  nurse 
her  child!  I  stopped  at  our  hospital,  coming  back, 
and  made  arrangements  to  get  her  in  there  till  she 
is  well  again.  Marion,  that  baby  really  felt  and 
smelled  like  a  rose-leaf!  I  shall  never  marry,  of 
course;  but  I  had  a  sort  of  a  little  thrilling  feeling 
of  what  motherhood  must  be.  It  is  so  strange,  you 
can't  imagine  —  no  one  can  imagine  —  till  a  baby  is 
left  all  alone  in  one's  arms  to  care  for.  I  could  have 
stayed  there  for  hours,  for  the  pleasure  of  feeling 
its  warm  body  upon  my  heart.  I  wonder  if  Mrs. 
Stromeyer  does  n't  have  that  to  balance  some  things 
you  and  I  have,  Marion.  Oh,  dear !  there  are  all 
those  circulars  to  address  and  get  out  this  afternoon. 
And  here  comes  Mary  with  a  note  for  you.  No  an 
swer,  Mary!  Then  you  may  go  and  serve  luncheon 
at  once.  Now,  Marion,  as  I  live  and  breathe  and 
am  a  curious  girl,  that  's  Stremof's  crest  upon  the 
envelop ! " 

"  It  is  an  answer  to  one  I  sent  him  a  little  while 
ago,"  said  Marion,  coloring  deeply  as  she  opened  the 
note.  "  I  think  I  will  leave  this  with  you,  Mignon, 
while  I  go  to  prepare  for  luncheon.  But  don't  com 
ment  on  it  to  me  afterward,  please,  dear." 

Left  alone,  Mignon's  eager  orbs  lost  no  time  in 


192  A  BACHELOB  MAID 

possessing  themselves  of  the  contents  of  Baron  Stre- 
mofs  epistle. 

"Your  word  is  law  to  me,"  it  said,  "and  I  leave 
town  this  afternoon,  for  a  fortnight  in  Boston,  with 
out  attempting  to  see  you.  But  unless  you  notify 
me,  there,  not  to  return  at  all,  I  shall  count  the 
hours  before  placing  myself  again  and  forever  at 
your  feet." 

Miss  Cox  made  no  attempt  to  overcome  the  blank- 
ness  of  her  feeling.  After  thinking  it  over,  she  rang 
the  bell,  and  interrogated  the  butterfly-topped  maid. 

"  No  one  has  called  this  morning,  Mary  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  miss ;  only  the  circulars  that  was  left  by 
the  Ladies'  Suffering  man ;  and  the  Cruelty  Society 
called  for  the  bundle  o'  clothes ;  and  Mrs.  Irving  for 
Miss  Irving,  miss." 

"  Mrs.  Irving  ?  " 

"Yes,  miss;  a  pleasant-spoken  lady,  in  a  rich  brown 
velvet  suit  and  hat.  I  don't  think  she  's  ever  called 
here  before  now ;  but  I  made  sure  't  was  a  relation, 
and  let  her  right  in ;  and  Miss  Irving  saw  her  right 
away." 

"Yes,  Mary.    Luncheon,  now." 


XI 


HILE  Strernof,  in  Boston,  was  en 
joying  a  wide  variety  of  discreet 
hospitalities  that  went  as  far  as 
possible  toward  robbing  this  espe 
cial  absence  from  New  York  of  its 
sting,  Gordon,  in  the  excitement  of 
his  honorably  won  success,  felt  a  sense  of  something 
lacking  to  his  satisfaction. 

But  a  short  time  before,  the  household  to  which 
it  would  have  occurred  to  him  to  carry  his  laurels, 
for  the  best  kind  of  congratulation  thereupon,  would 
have  been  the  Irvings'.  Now  that  door  was  closed 
to  him.  The  judge  had,  indeed,  indited  to  him  a 
short  perfunctory  note,  expressing  his  satisfaction  at 
the  final  action  of  the  Senate  in  Gordon's  case.  But 
it  was  not  a  note  that  referred  hopefully  to  any  meet 
ing  of  the  sender  and  recipient  in  the  immediate 
future,  and  Alec  could  not  but  feel  it  confirmed  the 
previous  distance  between  them.  Harder  to  bear 
was  the  absolute  silence  of  Marion.  Unreasonably 
ignoring  that  it  was  he  who  had  elected  total  sepa 
ration  from  her  as  the  better  part  of  discretion  for 
him,  he  worried  himself  with  daily  expecting  from 
her  a  few  words  of  kindness  that  never  came.  So  many 

13  193 


194  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

little  missives  had  come  to  him  from  fair  women  with 
whom  he  could  claim  only  the  passing  acquaintance 
of  society.  On  all  other  sides  the  world  exposed  to 
him  a  broadly  beaming  smile.  But  from  Marion, 
nothing ;  absolutely  not  the  ghost  of  a  conventional 
word  of  approval. 

With  an  idea,  perhaps,  of  obtaining  some  tidings 
of  her,  he  repaired  one  Sunday  afternoon  to  call  upon 
Mrs.  Romaiue.  As  he  drew  near  the  familiar  front 
door  he  even  indulged  in  a  hope  that  he  might  meet 
Marion  within,  and  his  brain  grew  dizzy  with  the 
fancy.  Hear  from  her,  or  from  somebody,  he  must, 
of  the  progress  of  Stremof  s  suit.  Stremof  absent 
in  Boston,  Stremof  silent,  uncommunicative,  did  not 
seem  much  like  a  triumphant  lover ;  and  yet  the  un 
certainty  was  intolerable.  Gordon  had  even  worked 
himself  up  to  the  point  of  being  afraid  to  take  up 
a  newspaper,  lest  he  should  somewhere  come  upon 
an  announcement  of  their  engagement. 

Mrs.  Romanic's  surroundings,  that  afternoon,  were 
unsatisfying.  There  was  about  the  rooms  a  scatter 
ing  of  the  mixed  lot  of  her  acquaintances.  The 
hostess,  in  a  robe  of  gray  satin  with  big  muslin 
sleeves  like  a  bishop's,  sat  against  a  mass  of  orange 
cushions,  and  poured  tea.  But  she  seemed  distracted, 
looked  wan,  talked  to  make  talk,  was  a  trifle  more 
brilliantly  vague  than  usual.  On  a  gilt  chair  at  her 
side  Reggy  Poole,  her  familiar,  sat  babbling  with  in 
finite  importance  about  nothing  in  particular.  He 
was  a  well-dressed,  fat-faced  young  man,  with  a  little 
mustache  above  a  baby  mouth ;  and  black  hair  parted 
in  the  middle,  and  glued  to  his  head  like  a  priest's 


A  BACHELOE   MAID  195 

cap.  In  season  and  out  of  season,  even  if  nobody  lis 
tened,  Reggy  must  always  talk.  He  would  hold  on  to 
his  hostess's  hand  on  arriving  at  a  ball,  and  keep 
back  the  stream  of  people  behind  him,  while  he  told 
her  a  little  anecdote  of  himself  last  year  at  Homburg. 

On  the  other  side  of  Mrs.  Romaine,  who  was  doing 
the  honors  to  a  foreign  ambassador  imperfectly  ac 
quainted  with  the  English  tongue,  were  two  ladies 
profoundly  interested  in  each  other's  oracles;  that 
is  to  say,  they  were  talking  for  the  most  part  to 
gether.  By  close  listening,  only,  was  one  able  to  as 
certain  that  they  were  exchanging  experiences  about 
a  new  prophetess  of  faith-cure. 

One  of  these  disciples,  a  long,  slim  woman  witli 
flaxen  hair,  pale  eyes,  and  a  little  shining  knob  upon 
her  long,  slim  nose,  gesticulated  a  good  deal  with  a 
pair  of  long,  slim,  pearl-colored  kid  gloves;  but  her 
face  showed  no  change  of  expression.  When  for  a 
moment  she  would  pause,  her  companion,  a  chubby 
little  lady,  "  greatly  infested  with  beads  "  in  her  cos 
tume,  would  dash  in  eagerly  to  tell  how  she  had  been 
raised  by  faith  from  the  bed  of  unprecedented  lan 
guor  to  which  she  had  been  abandoned  by  all  the 
faculty  of  physic. 

Another  group  enshrined  a  fashionable  woman  of 
letters,  who  looked  like  a  Polish  princess  making 
her  first  round .  of  the  American  republic ;  two  or 
three  of  her  adorers;  an  artist  of  American  birth 
and  Parisian  residence  who  had  returned  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  his  renown  in  a  brief  glimpse  of  home; 
and  Mrs.  Townsend  Murray,  an  agreeable  widow  os 
cillating  between  two  hemispheres,  of  whom  it  was 


196  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

claimed  that  she  dined  at  her  own  house  only  when 
her  chef  was  ordered  to  provide  for  a  company  of 
invited  guests. 

Elsewhere  people  were  less  interesting.  Herr  Hof- 
man  stood  alone  beside  the  mantelpiece,  on  which  he 
had  set  his  cup  of  tea,  dipping  into  it  sweet  biscuit, 
which  he  afterward  absorbed  with  solemn  gusto. 
There  was  no  trace  anywhere  of  the  object  of 
Gordon's  search. 

Gordon,  stopping  by  the  tea-table,  shared  the  privi 
lege  of  his  hostess's  conversation  with  the  foreign 
ambassador  for  a  while ;  then,  declining  to  be  button 
holed  by  Reggy  Poole,  He  strolled  on  to  the  party 
to  whom  Mrs.  Townsend  Murray  was  now  dispensing 
animated  speech. 

"I  have  signed  nothing  ;  I  shall  join  nothing,''  she 
was  saying  with  finality.  "  The  only  compensation 
a  woman  can  claim  from  society  for  getting  on  to  be 
fifty  years  old  is  the  right  to  be  amused  by  it ;  and  I 
don't  find  this  women's  suffrage  business  even  amus 
ing.  But  then  I  have  lived  down  so  many  'move 
ments  '  in  New  York.  I  have  been  shaken  to  my 
center  by  such  a  variety  of  enthusiasms.  Long  ago 
there  was  a  society  of  '  The  Crescent  and  the  Cross/ 
in  which  what  was  called  the  liberality  of  American 
thought  gave  precedence  to  the  Moslem  symbol  in 
the  title.  I  believe  it  was  to  furnish  relief  to  the 
hospitals  in  the  war  of  Russia  against  Turkey.  At 
any  rate,  it  nearly  disrupted  our  body  social,  and 
there  was  a  dark  whisper  that  all  or  much  of  the  fund 
raised  was  pocketed  by  remote  agents  of  distribu 
tion.  Then  we  had  an  early  dress-reform  wave  that 
was  dashed  and  lost  on  a  question  of  becomingness. 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  197 

I  never  even  heard  what  became  of  that;  but  we 
quarreled  frightfully  while  we  were  getting  it  up. 
Then  the  '  Centennial '  agitation,  and  one  can't  have 
forgotten  the  tantrums  that  raised ;  and  a  half-dozen 
others  I  won't  bore  you  by  recalling.  There  must 
always  be  something  that  women  of  our  class,  uncon 
vinced  of  on  one  day,  will  rush  into  with  an  absolute 
rage  of  conviction  the  next.  And  we  generally  begin 
proselyting  before  we  acquire  the  articles  of  our 
faith.  Vote"?  No,  thank  you;  I  decline.  I  might  be 
willing  to  deposit  my  own  vote,  but  I  don't  want  it  to 
go  in  and  be  lost  under  those  of  my  naturalized 
French,  German,  Swedish,  Italian,  and  Irish  maid-ser 
vants,  And  I  don't  want  them  going  to  the  clergy 
for  instructions  how  to  vote." 

"  Right  you  are,  Mrs.  Murray,"  observed  a  fee 
ble  voice.  It  was  that  of  young  Mowbray  Packer, 
chiefly  known  as  the  rapid  dispenser  of  his  father's 
hard-earned  millions,  and  for  paying  an  enormous 
price  to  secure  an  artificially  tinted  gardenia,  fresh 
every  day,  for  his  buttonhole.  He  was  small,  pale, 
bald,  and  had  a  heart  discoverable  only  because  of 
its  occasional  rebellion  against  the  incessant  smoking 
of  cigarettes.  "  Can't  think  what  the  women  mean 
by  undertaking  to  put  themselves  on  a  level  with  us, 
you  know !  "Wish  people  would  stop  agitatin'  things, 
anyhow.  It 's  no  use.  World  's  all  played  out,  seems 
to  me." 

"  That 's  lucky  for  you  •  don't  you  think  so  ?  "  said 
Mrs.  Murray.  "  Mr.  Gordon,  you  are  a  man  of  the 
future;  is  it  your  opinion  the  world  has  gone  to  the 
dogs  ? " 

"  I  am  too  busy  in  my  own  part  of  it  to  look  far 

13* 


198  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

away  from  me,  I  'm  afraid/'  said  Gordon.  "  But  I 
think  the  standard  of  mankind  and  womankind  keeps 
up  pretty  fairly." 

"  Don't  you  think  the  women  are  a  little  ahead  of 
the  men  I "  put  in  a  sharp  young  woman  who  was 
under  Mrs.  Murray's  wing.  "  Has  not  your  race  de 
generated  ?  One  used  to  hear  of  men  doing  gallant 
deeds,  and  looking  like  heroes,  but  there  are  n't  many 
such  around  my  way.  There  are  only  athletes,  now, 
who  perform  in  public — for  universities;  and  they 
soon  go  out  and  belong  to  the  dead  level  of  men  who 
seem  to  do  nothing  but  try  to  make  or  spend  money." 

"Allow  me  to  refer  you  to  our  late  war,"  said  Gor 
don.  "  That  afforded  examples  of  heroism  that  ought 
to  be  remembered  at  least  half  a  century.  But  per 
haps  you  will  be  better  able  to  appreciate  something 
more  nearly  contemporaneous.  Am  I  allowed  one 
little  story  of  to-day,  Mrs.  Murray  ?  I  promise  not  to 
be  long.  Last  year,  in  the  Matabele  war  in  Africa, 
a  small  party  of  Britons  went  into  the  bush  to  in 
tercept  and  capture  bad  King  Lo  Bengida.  Only  re 
cently  the  story  has  been  published  which  explains 
why  none  of  that  little  company  ever  came  back.  A 
Matabele  warrior  has  told  how  they  met  their  fate. 
The  Englishmen,  surrounded  by  overpowering  num 
bers,  fought  till  their  last  cartridge  was  exhausted 
—  some  shooting  themselves  rather  than  fall  by 
the  hands  of  the  savages.  A  little  handful  of  the 
wounded  survivors,  who  had  been  partly  sheltered  be 
hind  dead  horses,  then  dragged  themselves,  bleeding, 
together,  and  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  a  group 
facing  the  foe.  l  Then  they  raised  their  hats,'  the 


A  BACHELOE   MAID  199 

Induiia  is  reported  to  have  said,  '  and  sang  that  song 
of  your  country  I  have  heard  the  missionaries  sing. 
And,  as  they  were  singing,  our  warriors  swept  down 
on  them  like  a  river,  hurling  their  assagais  as  they 
ran,  and  overwhelmed  them,  and  speared  them  to 
death.'" 

"And  what  song  did  they  sing?"  asked  one  of  the 
women. 

"  It  was  '  God  Save  the  Queen! '  And  perhaps  you 
remember  a  similar  incident,  when  our  own  flag-ship, 
the  Trenton,  was  wrecked  at  Samoa  a  few  years  since. 
The  crew,  assembled  on  the  quarter-deck,  expecting 
death,  sang  the  'Star-Spangled  Banner'  while  the  old 
war-ship"  was  driving  on  the  rocks — to  destruction, 
as  they  believed ;  though,  happily,  they  were  saved  to 
sing  another  day." 

"  Quite  so  ! "  remarked  Mr.  Mowbray  Packer,  stroll 
ing  away  from  the  group  to  seek  entertainment  else 
where. 

"  It  does  seem  as  if  the  men  have  a  little  showing, 
still,"  commented  Mrs.  Murray  upon  Gordon's  recital, 
"  and  as  if  Odin  had  n't  kept  all  the  heroes  of  the 
sagas  to  himself.  I  fancy  most  of  the  charges  that 
men  are  degenerate  in  our  day  come  from  women 
who  for  the  first  time  find  themselves  thwarted  by 
their  lords  and  masters  in  little  schemes  of  their  own. 
Now,  I  'm  a  free  lance.  I  have  n't  any  lord  and 
master,  so  I  am  lifted  above  suspicion  of  truckling  in 
such  a  matter.  I  own  I  like  men  rather  better  than 
women,  at  most  times.  And  why  do  the  women  suf 
fragists  say  men  have  deliberately  retarded  .their 
efforts "?  That  does  not  seem  to  me  fair  play." 


200  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"What  men  have  really  done,  in  this  generation 
and  locality/'  said  Gordon,  "  has  been  to  concede  to 
women  everything  they  have  themselves  been  agreed 
upon  as  reasonable  or  desirable  to  demand  as  a  right. 
The  indifference  of  women  generally  to  the  claim  of 
a  right  to  vote  is  what  chiefly  retards  the  efforts 
of  the  champions  of  the  female  suffragists;  and  the 
open  and  avowed  opposition  of  others  is  the  obstacle 
they  cannot  overcome.  When  women  all  move  to 
gether  in  that  matter, —  or  in  any  other, — Heaven  de 
fend  those  of  my  poor  sex  who  attempt  to  stem  the 
current !  " 

Mrs.  Murray  and  Gordon  had  been  left  to  them 
selves. 

"  I  must  take  this  opportunity  to  tell  you,  Mr.  Gor 
don,"  the  lady  said,  "  how  proud  this  representative 
of  our  party  is  of  your  having  won  the  prize.  You 
know  I  am  a  bit  of  a  politician,  unfashionable  as  that 
is  with  us.  I  have  watched  you,  and  know  of  your 
progress  in  affairs.  Perhaps,  in  the  sweet  by  and  by, 
I  shall  be  one  of  your  lieutenants  in  a  campaign  to 
make  you  President  of  these  United  States.  Only 
I  am  afraid  there  will  then  be,  as  they  threaten,  a 
woman  Vice- President  upon  your  ticket ;  and  I  have 
long  ago  sworn  never  to  work  again  for  women." 

"  Perhaps  you  yourself  will  serve  on  the  national 
ticket  with  me,"  said  he,  smiling. 

"  Dear  me,  no ;  there  might,  by  that  time,  be  the 
disability  of  age,  among  others,  for  me.  I  can  think 
of  no  one  woman  among  the  ranks  of  the  suffragists 
who  would  do  to  put  forward  with  you,  unless  it  were 
that  stunning-looking  Marion  Irving,  whom  I  hardly 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  201 

know — the  girl  who  is  living  with  Mignon  Cox  — 
daughter  of  the  judge  who  married  his — type- writer, 
was  n't  she  f  Now  that  Miss  Irving  might  be  made 
anything  symbolical,  monumental ;  but  I  did  hear — 
it  seems  to  me  the  ambassador  told  me  a  few  mo 
ments  ago — that  Baron  Stremof  is  to  marry  her." 

"  Is  this  generally  known  ? "  asked  Gordon,  not  a 
muscle  of  his  face  betraying  that  he  had  got  the 
death-blow,  dealt  so  heedlessly. 

"  Bless  me,  I  can't  tell  you !  One  hears  so  many 
things.  Old  Roncesvalles  loves  gossip,  and  must 
always  have  a  crumb  of  it  to  distribute  as  he  goes. 
Ask  him.  No ;  he  's  gone.  Ask  Mrs.  Romaine. 
She  's  by  way  of  being  intimate  with  that  pair  of 
pretty  spinsters.  You  know  Stremof,  then  !  What 
a  dear  he  is  !  So  refreshingly  unaffected  in  this  age 
of  manner ;  and  so  full  of  appreciation  of  the  best 
there  is  in  us !  Why — almost  everybody  's  gone ! 
I  did  not  know  it  is  so  late.  Did  you  happen  to 
see  our  host  come  to  that  middle  door  just  now,  and 
stand  for  a  moment  by  himself,  looking  at  the  people 
around  his  wife,  then  disappear"?  He  looked  abso 
lutely  ghastly.  I  am  afraid  the  poor  man  is  ill,  so 
we  had  better  take  ourselves  away.  Tell  my  girl 
over  there  I  am  going,  please." 

When  Gordon  went  up  to  say  good-by,  Mrs.  Ro 
manic  asked  him  in  an  undertone  to  remain  until 
after  the  others  had  gone.  Struck  with  an  expres 
sion  of  her  eyes,  as  if  she  were  keeping  at  bay  some 
mortal  apprehension,  he  noted  in  amazement  the  ab 
solute  self-control  with  which  she  fulfilled  the  last 
fraction  of  her  duty  as  a  hostess.  Then,  as  the  ser- 


202  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

vant  let  fall  the  portiere  held  aside  for  the  departing 
visitors,  she  motioned  Gordon  to  a  seat  beside  her. 

"  You  are  not  well  I  You  are  in  some  anxiety  that 
I  may  relieve  ?  "  he  said. 

"  Am  1 1  Perhaps.  I  did  not  know  that  I  show  it. 
I  kept  you  to  ask  if  you  have  heard  this  story  about 
Marion  and  Stremof,  and  if  you  are  going  to  let  the 
thing  go  on." 

"  What  can  I  do  ?  "  he  replied  icily. 

"  It  is  a  sort  of  pious  insanity  on  her  part,  I  think. 
Oh,  Mr.  Gordon,  I  have  n't  the  grip  on  things  I  once 
had,  or  I  should  stand  up  and  proclaim  to  young  wo 
men,  nowadays,  the  gospel  of  letting  true  love  light 
the  flame  on  conjugal  altars.  I  begin  to  think  if  we 
called  back  our  talents  from  the  turmoil  of  out-door 
affairs,  and  devoted  them  to  what  the  Lord  gives  us 
for  better  or  worse,  at  home,  we  'd  be  happier.  And 
why  should  Marion  even  contemplate  this  marriage, 
when  I  believe  her  heart  and  soul  are  yours  ?  Go  to 
her;  it  is  never  too  late  to  right  wrong.  Break  up 
this  affair." 

"  How  can  If"  he  asked,  flushing,  but  with  his 
lips  still  sternly  set. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know.  Everything  's  an  insoluble 
problem  in  these  days.  There  's  that  pretty  little 
cousin  of  mine,  Mignon — made  to  be  the  joy  of  some 
fond  husband's  life ;  she  's  another  devotee  to  the 
ideal.  But  I,  who  have  tried  everything,  and  failed 
in  everything,  who  am  I,  to  preach  to  them?  They 
would  laugh  at  me  if  I  told  them  that  in  every  natu 
ral  woman's  life  the  need  of  loving  and  being  loved 
by  man  is  the  immortal  impulse,  sure  to  overmaster 


A   BACHELOR   MAID  203 

her  some  day.  Now,  I  Ve  prattled  enough ;  you 
think  I  'm  an  impertinent  old  woman.  Go  away, 
and  let  me  rest  for  a  moment  before  I  dress  for 
dinner." 

"  There  is  nothing  in  which  I  can  personally  serve 
you  ? "  he  said,  holding  her  hand  and  looking  her  in 
the  eyes. 

"  No,  no." 

"  If  the  moment  arises,  you  will  promise  to  think 
of  me  ?  " 

"  How  good  you  are  !  I  ought  to  have  had  a  big, 
strong  sou  like  you." 

"  Is  your — is  Mr.  Romanic's  health  quite  what  it 
should  bef" 

"  I  think  so.  He  seems  quite  the  same,  only 
bothered  by  affairs.  Are  n't  all  men  bothered  by 
affairs  ?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  probably,  you  know 
more  of  his  concerns  than  I  do.  If  you  ever  marry, 
Mr.  Gordon,  open  your  heart  to  your  wife,  and  let 
her  stand  beside  you,  not  apart  from  you,  in  interest. 
Now,  good-by  again." 

Gordon,  pondering  on  these  things,  repaired,  after 
his  dinner,  to  his  Aunt  Effie  for  a  chat.  The  kind 
lady,  too  wholesome  to  nurse  a  grudge,  did  not  call 
him  to  account  for  recent  neglect  of  her.  She  talked, 
instead,  and  with  hearty  interest,  about  himself ; 
soothed  his  ruffled  spirit ;  and  finally  led  him  to  tell 
her  outspokenly  of  the  wound  corroding  in  his 
heart. 

"  I  heard  it  to-day,"  said  Miss  Effie,  looking  blank. 
"And,  my  dear,  if  I  were  of  the  crying  sort,  I  'd 
have  cried — then  and  there.  She  1s  your  girl,  Alec, 


204  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

cut  out  for  you  in  heaven,  and  I  don't  understand 
this  sudden,  fantastic  alliance  with  a  foreigner." 

"  Stremof  is  sui  generis"  said  Gordon,  hastening  to 
do  justice  to  his  friend. 

"All  the  same,  I  don't  believe  in  it.  I  know  very 
well  it 's  because  I  'm  your  nearest  relative  that  Mar 
ion  has  kept  away  from  me.  I  don't  resent  that — 
though  I  'm  sorry.  If  I  could,  I  'd  stretch  out  a 
hand  to  help  you,  Alec,  boy." 

"  Help  me  ?  What  do  you  mean,  Aunt  Effie  ?  Do 
you  suppose  I  am  a  child,  to  fret  after  another's 
prize !  Thank  God !  I  'm  no  weakling ;  and,  if  I 
know  myself,  this  is  the  last  time  I  shall  speak  to 
any  living  being  of  her  personal  relation  to  me. 
Please  to  consider  that  chapter  ended,  and  the  covers 
clasped." 

Miss  Effie  had  something  on  the  tip  of  her  tongue, 
but,  like  the  heroic  woman  that  she  was,  kept  it  there. 

Alec,  picking  up  a  new  book  from  her  table,  fell  to 
discussing  that. 

After  he  had  gone,  Miss  Effie  opened  a  compart 
ment  of  her  desk,  and,  taking  out  a  faded  ambrotype 
of  a  soldier  in  uniform,  looked  at  it  for  a  long  time. 


XII 


N  the  camp  of  the  Amazons,  now 
threatened  with  a  disbandment  so 
unwelcome  to  Mignon,  had  arisen  a 
spirit  of  determination  on  the  part 
of  that  small  campaigner  which 
boded  ill  for  the  gallant  Stremof's 
hopes  to  secure  an  American  bride. 

Whatever  the  world  might  assert  upon  this  sub 
ject  as  final,  Mignon  knew  the  matter  was  not  yet 
closed.  She  was  aware  that  three  days  yet  remained 
of  the  fortnight's  probation,  at  the  end  of  which 
Stremof  might  be  allowed  to  claim  what  he  aspired 
to.  She  had  given  up  talking  about  it  with  Marion, 
but,  by  watching  narrowly,  saw  that  her  friend  was 
every  day  more  nervous.  How  heartily  Mignon 
wanted  to  cut  the  knot  of  difficulty  by  the  simple 
process  of  bringing  Gordon  and  Marion  together, 
only  she  knew.  For  days  it  had  absorbed  her 
thoughts  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  her  platform  and 
her  work  of  canvassing  for  emancipated  women. 
Had  she  lived  in  the  artless  days  of  old,  she  might 
have  followed  the  method  then  pursued  by  ladies 
desirous  of  securing  the  presence  of  an  unwilling 
gentleman — hiring  bravos  to  abduct  him  after  dark. 

205 


206  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

But,  short  of  this  compelling  device,  she  saw  none 
that  would  accomplish  her  desire.  The  little  ob 
stacles  of  conventionality  are  surely  to  blame  for  the 
gravest  miscarryings  of  human  affairs.  Knowing 
for  how  long  a  time  Gordon  had  absented  himself 
from  Marion,  would  Mignon  be  justified  in  inform 
ing  him  that  Marion  was — unconsciously  perhaps  — 
as  much  in  love  with  him  as  she  was  repentant  of 
her  pledge  to  Stremof? 

Mignon  tried  to  persuade  her  chum  to  write  to  the 
absent  suitor,  and  tell  him  frankly  she  had  made  a 
great  mistake.  But  Marion  was  in  an  exalted  state 
of  devotion  to  supposed  duty.  Stremof  had  con 
vinced  her  that  life  with  him  would  open  a  broader 
opportunity  for  usefulness  than  any  she  was  likely 
to  find  at  home.  The  prospect  of  living  out  of 
New  York,  and  at  the  same  time  doing  missionary 
work  among  those  "  most  interestingly  wretched " 
Russians  upon  Stremof  s  estates,  kindled  in  her  an 
excitement  she  almost  mistook  for  pleasure. 

A  wise  mother,  to  whom  Marion  might  have  car 
ried  her  case  in  this  exigency,  could  have  demolished 
its  weak  points  with  love  and  common  sense.  But 
what  was  Marion's  only  counselor — poor  little  Mi 
gnon,  her  own  head  stuffed  with  distracting  aspira 
tions  and  mistaken  aims,  with  noble  fallacies,  with 
puzzling  counter-impulses — to  advise?  Had  they 
not,  together,  many  a  time  decided  that  duty  to  the 
individual  should  be  subordinated  to  duty  to  society 
at  large  ?  Whatever  their  personal  discomfort,  must 
they  not,  before  all  things,  assist  in  running  the 
machine  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Humanity? 


A   BACHELOR   MAID  207 

But  as  the  days  narrowed  into  hours  before 
Stremof  was  due  to  return,  Mignon  grew  unaffect 
edly  desperate  to  keep  him  away.  In  the  throes  of 
conflicting  feelings  she  walked  over  to  the  hospital 
to  see  after  her  Mrs.  Stromeyer,  the  wife  of  the 
baker  out  of  work,  and  joint  proprietor  of  the  be 
witching  baby. 

Things  there  were  in  a  bad  way  for  the  house  of 
Stromej^er.  Not  only  did  poverty  still  hold  the  hus 
band  hard  and  fast  in  its  clutches,  but  the  wife  was 
sinking  fast.  While  the  baby  in  another  ward  slept, 
all  unconscious  of  his  distressed  estate  in  life,  the 
husband,  admitted  behind  the  screen  around  the  cot, 
sat  dazed  and  wretched  at  the  patient's  side.  The 
doctors  who  had  just  passed  on  their  rounds  had  told 
him  she  would  not  last  out  the  hour. 

Mignon,  laying  aside  the  useless  cluster  of  spring 
blossoms  she  had  brought,  stood  sorrowful,  looking 
on  at  this  little  scene  from  the  drama  of  every  day. 
Presently  the  sufferer,  opening  her  eyes,  became 
aware  of  her  visitor,  and  smiled  gratefully. 

"  That  is  nice !  I  am  happy,"  she  whispered,  her 
eyes  quickly  leaving  Mignon  to  seek  her  husband, 
her  wan  hand  going  out  to  imprison  his. 

"  Sh'an't  I  bring  the  baby  ?  "  asked  Mignon,  seeing 
the  end  was  near. 

Obtaining  leave  from  the  head  nurse,  she  ran  away 
into  a  far  ward,  and,  returning  with  the  infant  in  her 
arms,  leaned  down  to  let  it  touch  the  mother's  lips. 

"  That  is  nice !  I  am  happy,"  repeated  the  woman. 
But  she  did  not  look  a  second  time  toward  the  child. 
Her  gaze  again  sought  her  husband. 


208  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

And  as  Miguon  left  them,  the  man's  head  had 
fallen  forward  upon  the  bedclothes,  the  wife's  arm 
was  around  his  neck. 

MIGNON  went  out  of  the  hospital  into  the  broad 
sunshine  of  the  jocund  day,  and  walked  home  slowly. 
In  'the  seclusion  of  her  room  she  wrote  a  note,  and 
sent  it  by  special  messenger.  Just  what  influence 
the  pitiful  scene  at  the  hospital  had  in  shaping  this 
course  of  hers  she  did  not  allow  herself  to  think. 

For  the  remainder  of  the  afternoon  she  was  rest 
less,  growing  white  and  red  by  turns,  starting  at 
every  ring  of  the  door-bell.  Nothing  she  ordinarily 
found  interesting  attracted  her.  She  even  renounced 
an  important  lecture,  to  stay  indoors,  seeing  Marion 
go  off  to  it  with  ill-disguised  satisfaction. 

"  If  any  one  calls,  I  am  at  home,  Mary,  you  will 
remember  —  at  home,"  she  enjoined  upon  the  butter 
fly  maid.  And  —  shall  it  be  told  of  her?  —  Mignon 
then  selected  from  her  wardrobe  a  gown,  not  of  the 
most  recent  cut,  but  undoubtedly  enticing  to  the  eye 
—  a  gown  long  hung  away  under  others,  and  twisted 
anew  her  golden  locks  to  place  the  knot  at  an  angle 
formerly  much  admired  by  interested  eyes. 

This  done,  she  was  wrought  up  to  a  pitch  of  ex 
citement  that  brought  on  internal  tremblings,  ill 
masked  by  apparent  calm.  She  tried  to  read ;  tried 
the  piano ;  she  rearranged  the  flowers,  the  ornaments 
on  the  mantel-shelf;  then — last  resource  of  expectant 
woman  —  changed  the  position  of  several  pieces  of 
heavy  furniture.  At  length,  bethinking  her  of  an 
unfinished  essay  for  a  girls'  club  that  was  lying  upon 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  209 

her  desk,  she  boldly  took  up  her  rubber  penholder, 
and  dashed  into  a  sentence  left  incomplete : 

"  Not,  O  iny  sisters,  until  woman  shall  cease  crying 
out  against  her  wrongs  at  the  hand  of  man,  and  set 
herself  to  living  as  if  man  were  not,  shall — v 

Here  the  clock  struck  five,  and  Mignon  jumped. 
Dropping  her  pen,  she  turned  around  to  interrogate 
the  clock-face,  as  if  trying  to  persuade  herself  it  was 
in  the  wrong.  But  it  was  a  very  well  regulated  little 
timepiece,  and  obstinately  held  its  own.  Five  o'clock 
—  and  she  had  said  she  would  be  at  home  to  him 
at  four ! 

To  Mignoii's  dismay,  two  round,  bright  tears  welled 
in  her  eyes,  to  course  their  way  adown  the  rose-bloom 
of  her  cheek.  It  was  a  crisis  at  which  any  girl  might 
have  been  excused  for  an  expression  of  temper 
against  things  inanimate.  The  first  object  Mignon's 
eyes  rested  upon  was  her  uncompleted  essay;  and, 
tearing  the  page  from  the  pad,  regardless  of  wasted 
wisdom,  she  crumpled  it  viciously  in  her  hand,  and 
threw  it  into  the  fire. 

Simultaneously  there  was  a  ring  at  the  door-bell 
of  the  flat — an  insistent,  energetic  ring,  short,  sharp, 
and  decisive.  Mignon's  little  heart  fell  to  beating 
so  violently  she  could  hardly  breathe.  She  felt  her 
self  wondering  if  such  an  internal  tumult  could  pos 
sibly  show  outside.  But  she  retained  sufficient  self- 
control  to  give  a  glance  into  the  little  mirror  above 
the  mantelpiece.  The  door  opened.  It  was  the  maid, 
preceding  a  gentleman. 

"Mr.  Carleton,"  said  Mary,  secretly  pleased  that 
this  visitor  could  not,  by  any  stretch  of  imagination, 
14 


210  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

be  converted  into  one  of  those  "Ladies'  Suffering" 
men  of  whom  she  was  beginning  to  be  aweary. 

Lowndes  Carleton  did  not  smile  overmuch  when 
Mignon  held  out  her  hand  to  him.  He  was,  at  this 
period  of  his  career,  in  the  condition  of  the  dog  Dr. 
John  Brown  tells  about,  of  whom  his  master  averred: 

"  Oh,  sir,  life  is  full  of  sariousness  to  him.  He  can 
never  get  enough  o'  fechtin'." 

"  I  received  your  note  about  half  an  hour  ago,"  he 
said  with  business-like  gravity ;  "  and  as  it  seemed  to 
indicate  some  matter  of  importance,  I  came  as  fast 
as  I  could  get  up-town." 

"  You  are  very  kind.  But  I  knew  you  would  be/7 
faltered  Mignon,  as  they  sat  down  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  room.  This  distance,  however,  was  not  so 
great  that  Carleton,  by  extending  his  long  legs,  could 
not  easily  have  succeeded  in  covering  half  its  width. 
He  studied  the  crown  of  his  hat,  while  she,  the  ready 
speaker,  the  silver-tongued  oracle  of  women's  meet 
ings,  wondered,  now  that  she  had  him,  what  use  she 
could  make  of  her  acquisition. 

"  It  is  a  hard  thing  to  explain  to  you  why  I  have 
asked  you  to  take  this  trouble,"  she  said  at  last.  "  I 
don't  know  whether  it  will  make  it  any  better  if  I  say 
it  is  for  another  person  —  other  persons  —  friends  of 
yours  and  mine,  who  I  think  are  in  great  distress 
that  might  be  remedied  if  I  only  knew  how  to  do  it." 

"  I  could  hardly  flatter  myself  you  would  send  for 
me  on  your  own  account,"  said  he — with  unnecessary 
irrelevancy,  Mignon  thought. 

"  It  has  been  so  long  since  we  met,  I  did  n't  quite 
know  whether  you  would  recall  my  name,"  she  an- 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  211 

swered  —  also  going  off  the  track  with  an  unpardon 
able  deviation  from  facts.  "  But  that  is  neither  here 
nor  there.  And,  not  to  take  any  more  of  your  time 
than  I  need,  let  me  tell  you  at  once  what  I  mean." 

Carleton  now  lifted  his  eyes  from  the  crown  of  his 
hat,  and  looked  at  her.  Then  Mignon' s  eyes  drooped ; 
she  took  a  paper-knife  from  the  table,  and  began 
playing  with  it  upon  her  lap. 

"We — my  friend,  Miss  Irving,  and  I — have  heard 
how  much  your  partizanship  did  for  Mr.  Gordon  in 
his  campaign.  I  felt  sure  you  admire  and  appreciate 
him  as  all  his  friends  seem  to  do.  And  I  wanted  to  ask 
if  you — if  you  think — would  it  be  possible  —  if  you 
know  whether — he  is  in  town,"  she  broke  down  lamely. 

"He  is  in  town.  I  saw  him  to-day  at  luncheon. 
He  is  very  well,  very  busy,  overrun  with  necessary 
affairs,  and  one  of  the  best  fellows  in  the  world," 
Carleton's  lips  said.  His  thoughts  were  concerned 
with  their  tumultuous  recognition  of  his  favorite 
gown,  his  favorite  mode  of  hair-dressing.  But  he 
did  not  know  quite  enough  to  take  these,  upon  this 
occasion,  as  a  tribute  to  himself. 

"I  ought  to  tell  you,  I  think,"  Mignon  went  on, 
warming  to  her  subject,  "  that,  after  I  wrote  to  you,  I 
was  frightened  to  death  lest  I  had  done  what  Mar 
ion's  delicacy  would  take  offense  at.  You  know  — 
maybe  you  don't  know — she  is  one  of  the  most  fas 
tidious  girls  I  ever  met.  But  the  only  thing,  in  such 
a  case,  is  to  apply  it  to  one's  self  —  and  I  —  " 

Mignon  stopped,  appalled.  She  ventured  a  glance 
at  Carleton,  to  see  what  effect  her  slip  had  had  upon 
him ;  but  his  face  gave  her  no  satisfaction. 


212  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  Won't  you  go  on  with  your  statement  ?  "  he  said, 
returning  to  his  hat,  she  to  the  paper-knife. 

"  It  would  be  better  to  ask  you  what  you  would 
think  of  a  pair  of  people — who,  I  believe,  truly  love 
each  other  —  getting  apart  for  no  really  good  reasons 
(though  they  seemed  so  at  the  time),  and  then  not 
being  able  to  come  together  again." 

"Well?"  he  said  eagerly,  his  eyes  kindling  with 
sudden  hope. 

"  Suppose  the  girl  had  never  been  truly  happy 
since  their  parting,  and  it  was  not  known  that  the 
man  had  —  er  —  formed  any  other  attachment  —  " 

"  Of  course  he  had  n't,"  Carleton  blurted  out. 

"  You  really  think  so  !  "  cried  Mignon,  ecstatically. 

"Think"?  I  know  it.  By  Jove!  where  would  he 
have  found  a  girl  that  could  hold  a  candle  to  her, 
even  if  she  did  play  the  mischief  with  his  feelings  ?  " 

"  But  she  did  not  mean  to,  and  she  has  been 
wretched  ever  since  —  perfectly  wretched  almost  all 
the  time." 

"  Mignon ! "  he  exclaimed,  making  an  abrupt  move 
ment  by  which  his  stick,  entangled  with  the  fire-irons, 
knocked  them  over  with  a  crash. 

"  Why,  Lowndes,  how  awkward  you  always  are !  " 
she  said  quite  naturally,  stooping  to  put  the  poker 
and  tongs  in  place.  "  Yes,  wretched ;  though  she 
would  n't  have  had  anybody  know  it  for  the  world. 
And  now  that  a  crisis  has  come  in  her  affairs  —  " 

"  A  crisis  ?  "  he  said,  turning  pale. 

"  Yes ;  she  has  given  a  conditional  promise  to  an 
other  man  to  marry  him.  And  to-morrow  the  other 
man  is  coming ;  and  if  nothing  interferes,  she  will  be 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  213 

bound  forever.  And,  oh !  how  I  can  look  011  and  see 
my  poor  dear  mistaken  Marion  — " 

"  Marion  ?  "  he  thundered. 

"  Lowndes,  don't  be  so  noisy !  The  servants  will 
hear  you  in  the  kitchen.  You  would  never  do  in 
a  flat." 

"  But  you  frightened  the  very  life  out  of  me  with 
your  hypothetical  heroine,  don't  you  see  ?  " 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean,"  she  answered,  over 
come  by  the  old  familiar  methods  into  which  they 
had  involuntarily  fallen.  The  sound  of  his  voice 
seemed  to  her  as  joyous  and  inspiring  as  a  bugle.  To 
be  near  him  stirred  in  her  an  old  delight  in  living 
she  had"  quite  forgotten. 

"  You  are  acting  in  a  very  odd  way,"  she  said  re 
provingly  ;  "  and,  unless  you  sit  down  again  quietly  in 
your  chair,  I  can't  finish  what  I  began  to  say." 

"  You  need  n't  finish ;  I  understand,"  he  inter 
rupted  breathlessly.  "You  are  for  showing  me 
there  's  a  chance  for  Alec  Gordon  to  get  his  sweet 
heart  back ;  and,  to  satisfy  you,  I  '11  promise  now 
that  I  won't  leave  a  stone  unturned  till  I  bring  him 
here,  dead  or  alive,  this  evening.  Losing  her  just 
took  the  salt  out  of  his  life.  And,  whatever  has  hap 
pened  between  them  since,  if  he  thinks  she  will  have 
him  again,  he  will  come  fast  enough." 

"  I  don't  know  that  she  would  like  him  to  think  ex 
actly  that,"  cried  Mignon,  rather  alarmed.  "A  girl 
could  n't  well  ask  a  man  to  come  and  just  talk  things 
over,  could  she,  no  matter  whether  any  good  is  to 
come  out  of  it  ?  But  no,  no !  I  have  no  authority 
to  say  that  Marion  wants  to  see  him." 

14* 


214  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  You  think  it  likely  I " 

"Ye-es,"  she  said  finally,  laying  hold,  as  upon  an 
anchor,  of  the  paper-knife. 

'*  You  believe  there  is  a  moment  in  a  true,  honest 
girl's  life  when  she  is  ready  to  put  aside  nonsense 
and  affectation,  and  own  to  the  man  she  has  wounded 
that  she  is  ready  to  make  him  forget  it  all  in  an 
eternity  of  bliss." 

"  Oh,  Marion  would  never  forgive  me  saying 
that!"  she  exclaimed,  her  face  dyed  with  innocent 
blushes. 

"  Let  Marion  go,  Mignon.  Let  Gordon  go.  For 
this  little  minute  think  of  yourself  and  me,  and  tell 
me  if  all  you  've  been  saying  for  her  does  n't  apply 
to  you  too,  dear." 

"  But  I  'd  never  have  sent  for  you"  she  cried,  011 
the  verge  of  tears.  "Never,  never;  and  you  know 
it !  If  my  mother  were  here,  it  would  be  different." 

The  sight  of  the  poor  little  Bachelor  Maid  break 
ing  down  in  a  fit  of  crying  in  her  chair  appealed  to 
the  best  manhood  in  her  lover,  and  took  him,  at  two 
strides,  across  the  room  away  from  her. 

"  I  shall  go  now,  dear,"  he  said,  with  his  hand 
upon  the  knob.  "  Don't  fear  I  will  presume  on  your 
generosity  to  her.  But  it  's  given  me  hope ;  and 
after  I  've  succeeded — as  I  shall,  I  promise  you — 
in  doing  what  you  want,  perhaps  you  '11  not  forbid 
me  to  come  back  on  my  own  account." 

Mignon  wiped  her  eyes,  and  took  courage. 

From  that  moment  dated  her  conviction,  since  un 
shaken,  that  whatever  life-work  a  woman  has  to  do, 
she  does  it  better  for  sharing  it  with  man. 


A  BACHELOR   MAID  215 

MRS.  ROMAINE  came  in  to  dine  with  the  girls  that 
evening,  saying  her  husband  had  sent  word  from 
his  office  he  might  be  detained  away  till  late.  Neither 
she  nor  Marion  could  account  for  the  extraordinary 
rise  in  the  barometer  of  Mignon's  spirits.  The  little 
maiden  was  transformed  into  a  creature  full  of 
tricksy  merriment,  her  joy  bubbling,  in  spite  of  her, 
into  all  she  said  and  did.  Marion,  whose  wings  were 
tipped  with  lead,  could  not  follow  her  friend's  nights. 
In  her  heart  she  thought  Mignon  for  the  first  time 
a  little  flippant.  Mrs.  Romaine,  also,  was  grave  and 
preoccupied.  It  was  a  dull  banquet,  between  them ; 
and  as  they  sat  afterward  around  the  fire  in  the 
drawing-room,  even  Mignon's  gaiety  flagged.  From 
time  to  time  she  glanced  at  the  clock,  and  sighed. 

"  What  ails  you,  dear  ?"  said  Marion,  finally.  "  One 
would  think  you  bewitched." 

"  You  and  I  are  brakes  upon  her  wheels,"  said  Mrs. 
Romaine,  rousing  herself  from  painful  abstraction. 
"  Come,  Marion,  give  me  something  pleasant  to  think 
of.  Tell  Mignon  and  me  if  to-morrow  is  really  to  see 
you  promised  to  be  the  future  Baroness  Stremof." 

"  I  have  asked  for  another  day,"  replied  Marion, 
blushing  deeply. 

"  Thank  Heaven ! "  cried  Mignon,  clapping  her 
hands. 

Mrs.  Romaine  could  not  resist  a  shaft  of  her  old 
forging. 

"  Reprieve  at  the  final  moment1?  The  prisoner  mer 
cifully  spared  for  further  consideration  of  her  of 
fense?  My  dear  girl,  you  know  your  own  affairs, 
but,  for  Heaven's  sake !  let  a  thousand  Stremof s  be 


216  A  BACHELOR   MAID 

disappointed  rather  than  do  yourself  the  wrong  of 
going  into  this  with  any  uncertainty." 

"  But  I  am  certain,"  said  Marion,  proudly. 

"  Then,  in  that  case,  I  retire." 

"  I  am  certain  of  so  many  things  that  make  others 
seem  less  important,"  the  girl  went  on  more  gently. 
"  Dear  Mrs.  Romaine,  have  confidence  in  me.  I  have 
not  found  life  so  full  of  sunshine  that  I  am  likely 
to  rebel  if  I  sometimes  wander  into  shadow  in  the 
future." 

"  What  a  way  for  a  girl  to  talk,  in  anticipation  of 
her  married  life ! "  Mrs.  Romaine  thought ;  but  she 
did  not  speak  this  thought.  Instead,  she  looked  at 
Mignon,  and  was  surprised  to  see  that  young  lady's 
recent  exaltation  of  spirit  succeeded  by  a  look  almost 
woebegone. 

"What 's  in  us  all?"  said  Mrs.  Romaine,  shrugging. 
"  Depend  on  it,  girls,  this  is  what  it  will  be  like  when 
we  have  finally  downed  our  tyrant  man,  and  under 
take  to  get  on  without  him." 

There  was  a  ring,  and  Mignon's  color  came  back 
into  her  pretty  face.  Her  eyes  shone,  her  cheeks 
dimpled. 

"  Let  us  agree,  then,  if  these  are  some  of  the  said 
tyrants  come  to  call,  to  make  them  welcome  —  no 
matter  who  they  may  be,"  she  exclaimed  saucily. 

"  Judge  Irving,  for  Miss  Irving,"  was  the  altogether 
astonishing  announcement  brought  to  them. 

Marion's  face  was  pale,  her  lips  firm,  as  she  walked 
across  the  entry  into  her  own  sitting-room. 

She  found  her  father  wandering  about  the  tiny 
place  in  his  top-coat,  having  forgotten  to  remove  his 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  217 

hat.  He  looked  shrunken,  careworn  —  denuded  of 
dignity,  of  importance.  Marion,  smitten  by  these 
facts  with  compunction,  offered  to  kiss  him;  but 
the  judge  seemed  hardly  aware  of  that  overture  of 
friendship. 

"  She  has  gone  away  from  me,  Marion,"  he  said, 
without  preamble.  "  I  don't  know  for  how  long.  I 
shall  never  be  sure  she  does  n't  mean  to  come  back. 
She  has  long  shown  me  she  was  tired  of  my  life  — 
tired  of  me.  Yes ;  she  's  been  restless  a  good  while. 
But  I  was  not  prepared  for  her  leaving  me." 

"  I  am  —  sorry,"  Marion  began  to  say,  and  paused. 

"  That  is  not  the  worst.  I  believe  she  is  going  on 
a  lecturing  tour  in  Canada  and  the  Northwest !  She 
showed  me  a  letter  from  an  agent  —  and  a  poster, 
Marion,  calling  her  'Mrs.  Judge  Irving  of  New  York1! 
It  is  rough  on  me,  though  I  Ve  got  nobody  to  thank 
but  myself.  She  's  been  making  it  very  hard  to  live 
with  her,  my  dear.  There  are  two  women  in  that 
one ;  you  Ve  never  seen  the  worse.  And  it  will  be 
hardly  possible  to  tell  when  she  may  not  be  coming 
back." 

He  sank  into  a  chair,  so  dejected  and  crestfallen 
that  Marion  could  scarcely  believe  her  eyes. 

"  I  am  sorry,  father,"  she  said  again  presently,  go 
ing  over  to  lay  her  hand  upon  his  shoulder.  "  Don't 
think  I  blame  you  for  what  has  kept  us  apart.  We 
both  made  mistakes.  It  seems  to  me  life  is  all  mis 
takes." 

"  There  's  another  thing  I  came  to  say  to  you,  my 
dear.  From  something  she  let  fly,  in  a  fit  of  anger 
with  me,  I  think  she  flatters  herself  she  has  helped 


218  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

to  keep  Alec  away  from  you.  If  she  said  anything 
against  him  to  you,  Marion,  I  'd  —  I  'd  take  it  with  a 
grain  of  salt.  She  has  not  scrupled  at  falsehoods. 
And  I  could  see  there  was  some  angry  feeling  in  her 
boast  of  this  to  me. 

"  You  believe  he  was  never  in  love  with  her  ?  "  she 
cried  eagerly. 

"  Never,  my  dear.  On  the  contrary,  he  did  every 
thing  in  the  world  to  warn  me  against  her,  for  your 
sake.  All  he  did  was  always  for  your  sake,  Marion. 
I  did  hope  you  and  Alec  might  forgive  bygones,  and 
be  friends  with  me  again — and  with  each  other.  He 's 
a  safe  fellow  to  trust  both  you  and  the  books  to  after 
I  'm  gone  ;  and  there  '11  be  a  good  lot  of  money.  But 
she  said  you  are  going  to  many  the  Russian.  Is  this 
true,  Marion  ? " 

"  I  believe  so,  father,"  she  said,  in  a  low  tone,  her 
hands  straining  one  within  the  other. 

A  tap  on  the  door.  Mignon  was  there,  a  radiant 
look  upon  her  face. 

"  I  would  n't  disturb  you,  dear ;  but  here  is  some 
one  who  wants  to  see  you,  and  your  father  too,  on 
very  particular  business.  Please  go  in,  Mr.  Gordon ; 
Mrs.  Romaine  and  I  will  take  care  of  Mr.  Carleton  ! " 

A  FEW  moments  later,  the  judge  went  away  from 
his  daughter's  door,  and  walked  dejectedly  down  a 
long  avenue,  to  bring  up  at  his  club.  He  slept  there 
that  night,  and,  after  he  was  in  bed,  tried  to  remem 
ber  just  what  had  passed  before  he  had  left  his 
daughter  standing  hand  in  hand  with  Alec  Gordon. 
He  had  an  idea  that  Gordon,  on  entering  the  room, 


A  BACHELOR  MAID  219 

had  taken  Marion  at  once  into  his  arms,  and  that 
Marion  had  seemed  more  than  content  to  let  him  do 
so.  But  to  his  Honor  all  minor  events  were  swallowed 
iip  in  the  flood  of  mortified  vanity  and  crushed  pride 
that  had  overwhelmed  him. 

MRS.  ROMAINE,  yawning  over  a  magazine  in  the 
dining-room,  remained  at  her  post  as  chaperon 
of  four  happy  people  as  long  as  she  could  keep 
awake.  Then,  breaking  up  the  ball,  she  ordered 
the  men  away,  asking  Gordon  to  accompany  her  in 
her  brougham  as  far  as  her  own  door. 

It  was  only  a  short  distance  to  her  house,  and  Gor 
don  had  hardly  begun  to  tell  her  of  his  capture  by 
Lowndes  Carleton,  who  had  pursued  him  half  over 
town  in  a  cab  before  finally  coming  upon  him  at  din 
ner  with  a  friend,  when  the  brougham  stopped. 

A  servant,  evidently  in  waiting  at  the  front  door, 
ran  down  the  steps  to  meet  them.  He  begged  Mrs. 
Romaine  to  go  at  once  up-stairs  to  her  husband,  who 
had  entered  the  house  but  a  short  time  before  them 
selves,  looking  so  ill  the  man  had  wanted  at  once  to 
send  for  a  doctor.  This  forbidden  peremptorily,  Mr. 
Romaine  had  shut  himself  in  his  own  room,  whither 
nobody  had  yet  dared  to  follow  him. 

"Let  me  wait  and  keep  the  carriage  in  case  you 
should  need  a  doctor,"  suggested  Gordon,  startled  not 
so  much  by  the  news  as  by  the  look  of  apprehension 
upon  Mrs.  Romanic's  face. 

" Thank  you,  perhaps  it  will  be  best,"  she  said;  and 
he  saw  that  her  thoughts  had  flown  before  her  up  the 
stairs. 


220  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

"  Does  she  care  for  him  so  much  !  "  the  young  man 
wondered,  entering  the  library,  and  sitting  down  to 
ponder  on  his  own  surprising  fortune.  With  Marion's 
kiss  upon  his  lips,  Marion's  plea  for  pardon  in  his 
ears,  the  affairs  of  other  people  could  not  seem  to 
him  of  the  first  importance  then. 

Before  long  he  had  a  message  from  Mrs.  Romaine, 
praying  him  to  go  up  to  her  husband's  room. 

"Mr.  Romaine  is  better,  I  hope?"  he  said  to  the 
butler,  who  preceded  him. 

"  Can't  say,  I  'm  sure,  sir.  I  did  not  see  Mr.  Ro 
maine  himself,"  the  man  answered  imperturbably. 

What  was  it  ?  Gordon  felt  a  sense  of  uncomfort 
able  anticipation  as  he  followed  along  the  corridor, 
and  tapped  at  the  door  indicated  to  him. 

It  was  opened  by  Mrs.  Romaine,  who,  drawing  him 
inside,  shut  and  locked  it.  Gordon  looked  at  her  in 
dismay.  In  the  brief  time  since  their  parting  a  terri 
ble  change  had  been  wrought  upon  her  face. 

"  My  dear  lady  !  "  he  exclaimed  in  a  shocked 
voice. 

"  He  is  there — in  his  own  room — you  will  see  him 
presently,"  she  said  in  a  lifeless  voice.  "  Sit  here  a 
moment,  first.  I  must  tell  you  what  soon  every  one 
will  know.  My  husband  is  not  only  a  ruined  man — 
he  tells  me  he  is  disgraced.  He  says  he  has  ruined 
so  many  others  that,  after  this,  men  will  always 
speak  of  him  as  a  thief ! " 

"  Good  God  !  "  cried  Gordon. 

"  There  is  more.  When  I  got  up-stairs,  a  few  min 
utes  ago,  I  was  just  in  time.  Another  minute — there 
would  have  been  —  this"  She  faltered,  and  with  a 


A   BACHELOK   MAID  221 

shaking  hand  lifted  a  pistol  from  the  folds  of  her 
dress. 

Possessing  himself  of  the  weapon,  Gordon  made 
haste  to  unload  it,  and  to  place  the  wretched  woman 
in  a  chair,  where,  dropping  her  head  upon  a  table, 
she  gave  way  to  a  burst  of  sobs  and  tears. 

"  But  I  must  tell  you  all,"  she  said,  when  again 
able  to  articulate.  "  No,  how  can  I  tell  you,  when  I 
myself  don't  know  particulars  ?  For  weeks  I  have 
seen  that  some  awful  cloud  was  over  him ;  but  God 
knows  I  never  dreamed  of  this.  Of  all  the  chances 
of  misfortune,  this  would  have  been  the  last  for  me 
to  expect.  I  always  believed  in  his  integrity  among 
men  —  always — always.  But  he  has  told  me  now, 
everything — freely,  fully.  Oh,  would  to  God  I  had 
shown  him  long  ago  what  he  is  to  me,  and  he  might 
have  confided  in  me  when  there  was  yet  time  to  save 
him  and  his  victims !  He  did  n't  mean  wrong,  Mr. 
Gordon ;  I  'd  swear  to  it.  See  how  generous  he  has 
always  been  to  me,  to  every  one !  It  was  that  mad 
rage  for  speculation.  It  has  overwhelmed  him  and 
all  who  trusted  him.  And  now  that,  like  a  child, 
he  has  opened  his  heart  to  me — what  shall  I  do  to 
comfort  him,  my  love,  my  poor  darling ! " 

Another  storm  of  despair  swept  over  her.  Gordon, 
standing  beside  her,  kept  his  hand  upon  her  shoulder 
tenderly,  firmly. 

"When  he  thought  of  dragging  me  down  in  the 
disgrace  that  will  be  known  everywhere  to-morrow, 
his  impulse  was  to  get  out  of  life  —  anyway,  he  said. 
He  supposed,  oh,  God  !  that  I  would  be  relieved — 
relieved  of  my  husband,  the  lover  of  my  youth — my 


222  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

poor  husband,  weighed  down  with  sin  and  care ! 
Think  of  that,  Mr.  Gordon  !  Think  I  let  him  believe 
so !  It  breaks  the  poor  remnant  of  my  heart.  But 
I  've  saved  him  from  the  worst  —  I  saved  him.  He 
is  mine  still,  to  comfort,  to  stand  by — no  matter 
what 's  to  come  !  " 

There  was  silence,  broken  only  by  a  fresh  burst  of 
her  uncontrollable  love  and  sorrow.  Gordon  spoke 
at  last. 

"You  are  quite  sure  he  will  make  no  other  attempt 
to  — "  He  glanced  significantly  at  the  pistol  still  in 
his  hand. 

"  No,  no.  He  has  promised  to  live  for  me.  He  is 
in  there,  lying  across  his  bed,  not  stirring.  He  has 
given  me  leave  to  speak  to  you." 

"  My  dear  lady,  this  is  inexpressibly  painful  to  me," 
began  the  young  man.  "  Perhaps  you  will  tell  me 
what  you  would  have  me  do?" 

"  Do  ?  "  she  cried,  springing  to  her  feet,  with  a  look 
of  dauntless  resolve  in  her  haggard  eyes.  "  There 
is  but  one  thing  to  do  —  thank  God  we  are  childless ! 
As  I  have  told  my  poor  darling,  we  must  face  it  — 
and  meet  the  punishment  —  together !  " 

WHEN  Gordon,  late  that  night,  found  his  way  from 
the  rooms  in  which  he  had  undergone  a  most  dis 
tressing  experience,  he  passed  unobserved  through 
the  lower  hall  deserted  by  the  servants,  who  scented 
disaster. 

As  he  let  himself  out  of  the  stately  portal,  and 
stood  for  a  moment  in  the  vestibule,  he  lifted  his  hat 
toward  the  door. 


A  BACHELOK  MAID  223 

"  To  the  Higher  Woman,"  he  murmured,  then  strode 
with  a  sad  heart  from  the  house  around  which  sha 
dows  deeper  than  those  of  night  had  forever  closed, 
into  the  brightness  of  his  own  steadfast  way. 

IN  the  contemporaneous  aspect  of  their  affairs  it 
is  possible  to  give  only  a  few  facts  in  disposing  of  the 
other  people  with  whom  this  episode  has  had  to  deal. 

Just  yet  it  is  hard  to  say  what  effect  Stremof  s 
disappointment  has  had  upon  him.  He  met  it  with, 
assuredly,  an  admirable  bearing,  sailing  shortly  after 
ward,  with  the  remark  that  he  will  return  to  pursue 
his  studies  of  American  sociology. 

The  junior  member  of  our  firm  of  Bachelor  Maids 
very  soon  became  an  utterly  devoted  Mrs.  Carletoii. 
As  they  were  giving  up  the  flat  on  May  1,  and  her 
mother  was  remotely  heard  from  as  still  upon  her 
travels,  with  no  intention  of  abandoning  her  pursuit 
of  change  of  scene,  Mignon  decided  that  she  could 
do  no  better  with  herself  than  be  married  from  the 
house  of  her  sister,  Mrs.  Clyde.  Lowndes,  as  soon 
as  he  had  secured  his  individual  share  of  female  suf 
frage,  stopped  fulminating  against  it,  and  was  spoken 
of  by  his  wife's  friends  as  "  an  ardent  sympathizer, 
only  not  quite  ready  to  speak  out."  The  worst  re 
corded  against  him  was  a  query  to  his  wife  whether, 
on  the  whole,  she  considered  that  she  would  have 
done  better  by  defeating  nature  than  in  letting 
nature  defeat  her.  But,  as  Mrs.  Clyde  observed,  it 
is  hardly  worth  while  remembering  the  foolish  things 
men  say  when  they  are  trying  to  make  you  think 
they  feel  themselves  your  equals. 


224  A  BACHELOR  MAID 

Marion,  while  awaiting  her  own  marriage,  fixed 
for  the  early  days  of  June,  had  returned  to  her  fa 
ther's  house.  She  there  told  Alec  and  Miss  Erne 
that,  in  thinking  over  her  winter's  experience,  she 
had  come  to  regard  the  woman  question  as  one  in 
volving  the  whole — not  half — of  the  human  race. 

"  So  do  I,"  said  Miss  Effie.  "  I  regard  our  eman 
cipation  as  an  inevitable  development  awaiting  us, 
but  one  in  which  men  are  equally  concerned." 

"  You  are  willing  to  let  us  think  that,  in  helping 
you  out,  we  are  working  for  our  own  regeneration  I " 
asked  Gordon.  "  Well,  be  it  so.  I  recall  those  lines 
of  Tennyson : 

The  woman's  cause  is  man's:   they  rise  or  sink 
Together,  dwarf'd  or  godlike,  bond  or  free: 
For  she  that  out  of  Lethe  scales  with  man 
The  shining  steps  of  Nature,  shares  with  man  — 

Here  my  memory  fails  me.     What  comes  next,  Aunt 
Effie?" 

"  I  can  remember  only  this,"  she  answered,  looking 
at  the  two  with  eyes  brimful  of  satisfied  pride : 

Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man, 
Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words." 


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